
Class JlAlM 
Book .7^/9 7 
pightN^ 

COPffilGHT DEPOSIT. 



/ 36 











BRIAN BORU, 
Kins of Ireland, a. d. 1002-1014. 



IRELAND'S Crown 
OF Thorns and Roses 

.OR. 

THE BEST OF HER HISTORY BY THE 
BEST OF HER WRITERS 

A SERIES OF HISTORICAL NARRATIVES THAT READ 
AS ENTERTAININGLY AS A NOVEL 

IRELAND IN PAGAN DAYS— LEARNING IN IRELAND BEFORE ST. 
PATRICK— COMING OF THE DANE, THE NORMAN AND THE 
SAXON— THE GLORIOUS STRUGGLE OF '98— THE GOLDEN 
ERA OF GRATTAN AND THE IRISH PARLIAMENT- 
CONSTITUTIONAL AGITATION— BIOGRAPHIES 
OF THE IRISH LEADERS— THE GAELIC 
LEAGUE RE-CREATING AN IRISH 
NATION— IRISH ELQQUENCE 
— ETC. — ETC. — 



AN OLD STORY 
TREATED FROM A NEW STANDPOINT 

BT THE FOLLOWING BBILLIANT GALAXY 
OP WRtTERS 

MOST REV. JOHN HEALY, D. D., Archbishop of Tuam 
A. M. SULLIVAN 

VERY REV. SYLVESTER MALONE 

RIGHT REV. PATRICK O'DONNELL, Bishop of Raphoe 
MARTIN HAVERTY 

REV. P. F. KAVANAUGH, O. S. F. 

SIR JONAH HARRINGTON, LL. D., K. C. 

VERY REV. MICHAEL P. O'HICKEY, Maynooth College 
T. P. O'CONNOR, M. P. 

SIR THOMAS HENRY GRATTAN ESMONDE, Bart.. M. P, 
VERY REV. DR. RICHARD HENEBRY, Ph. D. 
PROF. KUNO MEYER, Ph. D.. and others. 



GREAT SPEECHES ON GREAT OCCASIONS 

sparkling gem8 from the jewel house of 
Ireland's unrivaled oratory 

BY 

ROBERT EMMET A. M. SULLIVAN THOMAS SEXTON M 

THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER CHAS. STEWART PARNELL 

REV. DR. CHARLES O'REILLY W. BOURKE COCKRAN 

JOHN F. FINERTY 



compiled and edited by 
FRANK J. RYAN and P. F. HOLDEN 

EMBELLISHED WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS OF IRELAND'S ANCIENT AND MODERN LEADEH8 
PICTURES OF HISTOR7C PLACES, ETC, 




fiojiyrtsrht Entry 

OJ.MSS ^ XXo- Na 

^$093 

COPY B 



Copyright 1904 

BY 

F. J. Ryan 



Printed and Bound by M. A. DONOHUE & CO, 




/^6^^CSe/^.*^f^^ 




DEDICATORY 



TO 

Hon. W. Bourke Cockran of New York 

champion of liberty, 

eloquent defender of the democracy of the united states 
of america, and advocate of ireland's freedom, 
this book, which records the glorious 
deeds, the ancient greatness and 
the future possibilities of 
the irish race is re- 
spectfully dedi- 
CATED 

BY THE EDITORS 



PEEFACE. 

The object of the present [W^ork, '' Ireland *s Crown of 
Thorns and Roses,'* or studies in Irish history, is to present 
in simple form an outline of Ireland's joy and sorrow and to 
stimulate the reader to a deeper study of Irish affairs. 

It has been the constant effort of the compilers not to en- 
cumber the reader with a mass of details, but to sketch events 
in a few words and to give in a clear and connected manner 
an attractive general survey. 

The present work places in connected form the best 
thoughts of prominent Irish scholars, bearing on the great 
events in Ireland's career. 

We may with justice repeat here the following sentences 
from the preface of O'Brennan's Antiquities: 

''The deeds of Greek and Latin heroes of old have their 
names emblazoned in the pages of story ; the feuds and petty 
quarrels of their insignificant states are delineated as though 
they were great wars and immense nations ; their naval arma- 
ments though not so weighty as the fishing fleet of the Galway 
Claddagh-men— perhaps not more numerous— are presented 
to the reader in such highly colored language, in such poetic 
ornamentation that youth is apt to compare them with the 
Crimean fleet or Spanish Armada. 

''Their philosophers,lawgivers,are, and— no doubt— justly 
held up, as models of imitation. At the same time we seldom 
turn to OUamh Fodhla (Ollav Fyola) who, as king, legislator 
and scholar, was never surpassed. As you take a walk 
through the delightful works on Ireland you will admire on 
niches on either side of you, as you move slowly on, men dis- 
tinguished in every profession and pursuit, kings, princes, 
bards, chroniclers, generals, admirals, judges, prelates, 
priests, orators, senators. In fact, Irish history is a glorious 
hall of science, wherein are to be viewed men pre-eminent in 
all ages, in all times and in every art and science." 

We trust that this volume may increase the interest that is 
now so general, in the study of Irish subjects. 

+ P. J. MuLDOON, D.D., V. G. 

Bishop of Tamasos. 

Feb'y 25, 1904. 




RIGHT REV. P. J. MULDOON, D.D., V. G., 
Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago. 



EDITORS' NOTICE. 

WHAT THE BOOK CONTAINS. — PLAN OF THE WORK. 

It can be safely asserted that no such book as the present 
one has ever before been offered to the Irish- American read- 
ing public. It is more than a history— more, in fact, than a 
collection of histories. While it contains the cream of the 
best and most interesting Histories of Ireland that have ever 
been published, it is also a collection of the most erudite and 
absorbing articles on live Irish questions such as has never 
yet been put together in one volume. Not a worthless line, 
not an unnecessary word, not a barren idea can be found in 
it from cover to cover. 

It has more than once been said, and by some of the best- 
informed in literary and historical circles, that the worst 
feature— and the most repellant to students— in all Irish His- 
tories, and indeed the same applies to the histories of other 
nations, is the unwarrantably large space given to accounts 
of wars, preparations for wars, and dry enactments. In the 
case of Ireland, there is scarcely anything to record from a 
few years after the landing of Henry the Second to the days 
of the Volunteers, but a series of defeats— brightened once 
in a while by a few glorious victories, years of religious per- 
secution, and the slow but steady encroachment of the Saxon, 
The Irish people have had sufficient of this kind of reading 
and if Irish History is not half as popular with them as it 
should be, it is because of this very fact. In the present vol- 
ume, a clean sweep has been made of the great bulk of the dry 
and uninteresting matter with which our histories are filled. 

The plan of the work may be briefly described as follows : 

Section I. Ancient Ireland. (Covering the period from 
the coming of the Milesians to the overthrow of the Danes.) 

Most Rev. John Healy, D. D., Archbishop of Tuam. 
A. M. SuLLHTAN, Author of the ''Story of Ireland,** ''New 
Ireland," etc. 

Very Rev. Sylvester Malone, M. R. I. A. 

Thomas O'Neil Rxjssell, Author of several Gaelic wprks. 



Editors' Notice 

Section 11. The Norman Invasion. (Covering tlie period 
from the treachery of Dermot MacMurrough to the publication 
of the alleged Bull of Pope Adrian.) 

Martin Haverty. 



Section III. The Rising of '98. (Being a full history of 
the glorious struggle for liberty of the people of Wexford and 
surrounding counties in that memorable year.) 

Rev. p. F. Kavanaugh, 0. S. F. 

Section IV. In the Days of Grattan. (A complete his- 
tory of the Rise and Fall of the Irish Parliament, with pen 
pictures of the leading men of the period, and a description of 
the manners and customs of the people at that time.) 

Sir Jonah Barrington. 



Section V. The Men Who Died for Ireland in '48 and 
'67. (A record of the heroes of the Young Ireland and Fenian 
Movements, with a brilliant and soul-stirring description of 
O'Neill Crowley's last stand for Ireland.) 

M. A. Manning. First Editor of "The Dublin Weekly 
Independent. ' ' 

Section VI. Ireland's Great Constitutional Battle for 
Legislative Independence. (A concise but complete account 
of the Parnell Movement, with character sketches of its most 
prominent leaders. Carried down to the present time.) 

T. P. O'Connor, M. P. 

Section VII. The Gaelic League, or the Work of Re- 
creating A Nation. (Scholarly articles on the mission of the 
movement, and its steady progress. Brilliant papers on Irish 
music and Irish literature.) 

Right Rev. Patrick 'Donnell, Bishop of Raphoe. 

Very Rev. Dr. O'Hickey, Maynooth College. 

Sir Thomas Henry Grattan Esmonds, Bart., M. P. 

Very Rev. Dr. Richard Henebry, Ph. D. 

Prof. Kuno Meyer, Ph. D. 

Thomas O'Neil Russell. 



Editors' Notice 

Section VIII. Great Speeches on Great Occasions. 
(Sparkling gems from the jewel house of Ireland's unrivaled 
oratory.) 

Robert Emmett. 

Thomas Francis Meagher. 

A. M. Sullivan. 

Charles Stewart Parnell. 

Thomas Sexton. 

Rev. Dr. Charles O'Reilly. 

Hon. W. Bourke Cockran. 

John F. Finerty. 

The editors wish to state that the works of Sir Jonah Bar- 
rington and Rev. P. F. Kavanaugh are now out of print and 
can only he had in this volume. The notable papers by Irish 
ecclesiastics and others which form such an important feature 
of the book are sure to be received with enthusiastic approba- 
tion by all scholarly men and women. The high standard of 
the writers, the interesting nature of the subjects they treat 
of, and the manner in which they have treated them, make the 
book worth more than double its cost. In fact, it would be al- 
together impossible for the average purchaser of books to 
obtain the same amount of reading matter, on the same ques- 
tion, and of the same quality, for five times the amount. 

The editors therefore anticipate for this work an unpre- 
cedented sale. It is by far the greatest book of its kind that 
has ever been put upon the market, an assertion which they 
feel justified in making, not on account of any personal part 
they have had in its preparation, but because of the distin- 
guished men of Irish genius— some dead, but many, happily, 
still in the land of the living, whose names adorn its pages, 
and, further because of the intrinsic worth of the matter they 
contribute— a view which they feel sure will be shared in by 
all who even make a cursory examination of its contents. 

F. J. R.-P. F. H. 

November, 1903. 



TABLE OF PRINCIPAL CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Dedication : ., 3 

Preface ,^ . . 5 

Editors' Notice 6 

Introduction ^.. 15 

Learning in Ireland before St. Patrick 21 

Our Milesian Forefathers — The Three Queens from 

WHOM Ireland Derived Her Poetical Names 35 

Proofs of Ireland's Early Civilization — The Triennial 

Parliament of Tara 39 

The Free and the Unfree Clans — The Romans Afraid to 

Land in Ireland 43 

King Cormac the First — Nial of the Nine Hostages 74 

St. Patrick in Ireland 49 

Ancient Geographical Divisions of the Country — The 

National Militia — The Brehon Laws 53 

The Glorious Muster Roll of the Irish Saints — Coming 

OF the- Danes 57 

Reign of the Celebrated King Brian Boru 61 

Dark Times in Ireland 69 

The Danes Crushed — Ireland Victorious at Clontarf. ... 73 

The Leinster Tribute 3., 81 

St. Patrick's Burial Place 91 

Causes that Led to the Norman Invasion — Dermot Mc 

Murrough's Perfidy 103 

St. Lawrence 'Toole — Bravery op the Northern Princes 

— English Law Established in Ireland 117 

Description of Wexford and its People — Making Informers 

— Burning of Houses 133 

Father John Murphy — On to Oulart Hill 147 

Battle of Oulart Hill — Father Michael Murphy — Defeat 

OF the Meath Militia 155 

Orangeism in Wexford — Councils of War 167 

Insurgents Joined by Fathers Roche and Kearns — Battle 

of Newtown-Barry — Gorey Surprised 177 

Battle op Ross — Bravery of an Irish WomAn — A Youthful 

Hero 187 

Insurgents Acquire Military Discipline — The Pike Men. 199 

9 



10 Table of Principal Contents 

PAGE 

Liberality of Wexford Catholics — Severe Measures at 

Vinegar Hill 203 

Battle of Arklow— Death of Father Michael Murphy ... 213 

Battle of Fookes Mill 221 

English Government Alarmed— Famous Battle of Vinegar 

Hill 227 

Excitement in Wexford — Execution of Prisoners on the 

Bridge ..•. 235 

Retreat from Vinegar Hill— Murder of Father Roche . . 243 
Attack on Castlecomer— Capture of Father John Murphy 249 
Orangemen Routed at Ballyrackeen — Vengeance for the 

Murder of Women and Children 255 

Battle of Ballygullen — Last Stand of the Gallant Wex- 

FORDMEN 263 

Causes of Ireland's Depressed Condition— Aroused by 

American Independence 273 

The Irish Parliament Previous to 1779— Character of the 
Irish Peasant — Protestant and Catholic Clergy 

Compared 285 

Ireland Demands Her Rights 303 

Events in the Irish House of Commons — Character of 

Grattan — Charlemont and the Volunteers 315 

Humiliation of the English Government — The Volunteers 

Gather Strength 331 

The Convention at Dungannon — Declaration of Irish 

Rights 343 

Grattan Forces the Issue — Special Call of the House of 

Commons — English and Irish Parliaments Compared. . 359 
Triumph of Irish Rights Declaration in the House of 

Commons— Ireland is a Nation 371 

England Angered at Ireland's Success— The Volunteers 

Prepare for Action 383 

Credulity of the Irish Parliament — Popularity of Henry 

Grattan 395 

Comparison of Grattan and Flood— Character of John 

Philpot Curran 407 

Volunteers Received by the King — Ireland Prosperous 

AND Happy — Call for National Convention. 421 

Brilliant Scenes at the National Convention 433 

Heated Sessions in the Irish Parliament 447 

English and Irish Parliaments Clash— Pitt Working for 
the Union — _....._, ^ ,_. -^ t^ ^-. -^ >-± ^ -.-^ •-• 459 



Table of Principal Contents 11 



PAGE 



Ireland Acts on Her Independence — Agitation for Catho- 
lic Emancipation Commenced 469 

French Invasion of Ireland — "The Races of Castlebar." 483 
Arguments for the Union in Parliament — Violent Speech 

BY CaSTLEREAGH — PATRIOTISM OF SiR JoHN PaRNELL .... 497 

The Union Carried — Ireland a Nation Extinguished 529 

The Men who Died for Ireland 555 

O'Neill Crowley's Last Stand 557 

The Struggle for Home Rule 587 

Isaac Butt, First Home Rule Leader 591 

Butt's Unsuitability 594 

Joe Biggar's "Active Policy" 600 

Charles Stewart Parnell — History of the Parnell 

Family 605 

Parnell and Biggar Join Hands 613 

Parnell's Contempt for English Parties 620 

Retirement and Death of Butt 626 

Michael Davitt, Father of the Land League 629 

Parnell's Advice — "Keep a Firm Grip of Your Home- 
steads " 635 

Early Life of Justin McCarthy ^. 640 

McCarthy's Literary and Political Career 644 

Thomas Sexton, "Silver Tongued" Orator 648 

Romantic History of Arthur O'Connor 652 

T. D. Sullivan, Author of "God Save Ireland" 658 

James O'Kelly, Traveler, Soldier, Writer and Patriot. . 662 

O'Kelly in Cuba, and with the Sioux 666 

John Dillon and His Patriotic Family 670 

The O'Gorman Mahon, Garrett Byrne and Edward Davyer 

Gray 673 

Parnell Elected Irish Leader 676 

House of Commons Struggles with the Irish Question . . . 683 

Parnell Urges the Boycott 687 

Irish Leaders Placed on Trial 692 

The Irrepressible "Tim" Healy 696 

Characteristics of Mr. Healy 700 

William O'Brien, Founder of the United Irish League . . . 704 
First Home Rule Bill Introduced in the House of 

Commons 709 

Home Rule Defeated 7x1 

The United Irish League 714 

Avondale, Home of the Parnells 715 



12 Table of Principal Contents 



PAGE 



Recreating a Nation; or, The Work of the Gaelic League 721 

Our Language Our Noblest Inheritance ,, . , . , , .^. 724 

The Language of Our Sires ^. ..... ... 727 

Intellectual Revival in Ireland . .:. ...._,...., ..,. ,_.. 735 

Irish Music ........_,.. 745 

Survey of Celtic Philology .i. . . 750 

Irish Manuscript Literature , 761 

Great Speeches on Great Occasions: — 

Emmet's Speech in the Dock 771 

"Sword Speech" of Thomas F. Meagher 775 

A. M. Sullivan on the Manchester Martyrs 776 

Parnell's Defiance to Gladstone 781 

State of Ireland in 1882, by Thomas Sexton 782 

Rev. Dr. Chas. O'Reilly's Lecture on Thomas Moore .... 799 

A Plea for Ireland, by Hon. W. Bourke Cockran 811 

Speech of the Hon. Jno. F. Finerty «,...,.. ._, ,^, ^ 832 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAQB 



King Brian Boru. . . . .-,. ... .^. .. , .^. Frontispiece 

W. BOURKE COCKRAN 3 

Right Rev. P. J. Muldoon, D.D., V.G 5 

Rev. Francis L. Reynolds 15 

St. Patrick Going to Tara 49 

Death of Brian Boru 78 

Marriage of Eva McMurrough and Earl Strongbow Ill 

Rev. p. F. Kavanaugh, 0. S. F 131 

Town of Wexford . , ._. .^. . . . , 135 

Enniscorthy ,. . . ., 159 

New Ross 187 

Vinegar Hill -. .,. .,. .-. ... .,. ,^. .,. .,. .^. . . ._. .,. ._. . , . . . . . _ , 227 

A Pikeman of '98 231 

Henry Grattan 271 

John Philpot Curran ._, . . . . . . . . 417 

Daniel O'Connell 555 

Robert Emmet, Thos. A. Emmet and W. J. McNevin ... 557 

Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald 559 

The Brothers Sheares, and Samuel Neilson 561 

Theobald Wolfe Tone and Lord Edward Fitzgerald 563 - 

Chas. Steavart Parnell 585v 

John E. Redmond, John Dillon, Thomas Sexton and Mich- 
ael Davitt 629"^ 

Rev. Michael P. O'Hickey, D. D., M. R., I. A. 719 

Rev. Dr. Charles O'Reilly 799 

Thomas Moore ., ^. . _ ^ 806 

John F. Finerty qqo 






13 



A WORD ABOUT THE COVER DESIGN 

Doubtless the attention of the purchaser of this book will be 
at once attracted by the unique and beautiful design on the cover, 
and he will naturally want to know something about it. 

For his benefit we wish to say that the border surrounding the 
figure of "Irish Ireland" is copied, with some modifications, from 
an illuminated Irish manuscript called the "Book of MacDurnan, " 
executed in the year 850, and still preserved with all the original 
colors as fresh and bright as on the day the Irish scribe traced them 
in the mellow shadows of the cloister. This class of work and its 
revival is receiving much attention in Ireland at present. On the 
same order of merit and beauty of design are the many reproductions 
of interlaced work from the "Book of Kells" and other sources, 
placed at the ends of chapters throughout this narrative. 

Of the female figure it can be safely said that it represents the 
change that has taken place in Ireland in recent years by the propo- 
ganda work of the Gaelic League. Erin weeping beside her harp is 
no longer a true representation of Ireland. Our artist, Mr. Gus 
O'Shaughnessy, has caught the correct idea, and he has given us a 
figure of Ireland hopeful, courageous, self-reliant and conscious of 
her own resources, strength and dignity. One hand leans upon the 
harp to denote Ireland's love of music, a trait that has distinguished 
her for generations, while the other holds a tablet, indicative of 
the pre-eminence of the Irish nation as a center of learning in the 
past, and conveying the suggestion that, through education, may 
be found the remedies for the many ills from which her people suffer. 

The whole, design is strikingly appropriate on a book such as 
this, and like a flash forces the conviction on the observer that Ireland 
is indeed a land of Art, Literature and Music, confirmatory proof 
of which will be abundantly found inside its covers. 

Editors. 



14 




J J /"J 



REV. FRANCIS L. REYNOLDS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

There is no study that should so naturally interest the 
people of any nation as much as that of their own history. 
The great pulpit orator, Very Rev. Thomas N. Burke, 0. P., 
in his lecture on ''The Future of the Irish Race at Home and 
Abroad," has truly said ''Every race, every people have their 
own history, have their tale to tell of joy or of sorrow, of tri- 
umph and of shame ; and among the great family of nations 
we Celtic Irishmen have our history to look back upon, a his- 
tory covering many centuries, and going back to as ancient 
and honorable a source as any people on the face of God's 
earth. And from its earliest beginnings down to the present I 
hour, although that history is written on many pages in tears \ 
and in blood, and although it tells of centuries of unavailing 
struggles and defeats, and of a people ground into the very 
dust, it is still a history of which no Irishman need be; 
ashamed— we should look into the past history of our race, ' 
in order that in our day we may cultivate all that made our 
fathers great and at the same time, taught by the light of past 
experience, avoid the mistakes into which they fell." As it 
is with religion, so is it also with patriotism. The more we 
study and understand our religion, the more religious we be- 
come ; and the more we study and understand our history the 
more patriotic we become. It is for this very reason that 
some of the most intellectual and far-seeing men of our race 
have many tunes called attention to the lack of study of Irish 
history by the youth at home and abroad; knowing well that 
this deplorable neglect will result in the present and future 
generations forgetting and even repudiating their glorious 
ancestry. What citizen of America is not made more in- 
tensely patriotic by the study of American history, of its prov- 
idential discovery by Columbus, of the development of her 
colonies ; of the Revolutionary war ; of her seven years* strug- 
gle for independence; of Lexington, Bunker Hill, Valley 
Forge and Yorktown; of her glorious Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ; and of her Star Spangled Banner proudly floating 
on the breezes of heaven and proclaiming to the world Equal- 
ity and Liberty to the oppressed of all nations? 

And what Irishman, studying the pages of Irish history is 

15 



16 Introduction 

not thrilled by the antiquity and sublimity of her Civilization 
even many centuries before Christianity, her ancient liter- 
ature, wealth, manufacture and commerce famed in all the 
marts and ports of Europe ; her bards and learned men whose 
place of honor at her assemblies was assigned next to her 
Kings; her great military power under Niall of the Nine 
Hostages recognized all over Europe ; her parliamentary con- 
stitutions of Tara which form the basis of parliamentary pro- 
cedure even to the present day? Of Ireland the venerable 
Arch OUamb writes: ''0 Erin, thy granaries are full, thy 
children are happy, thy daughters are virtuous, thy sons are 
brave, thy old men are wise, thy rulers are just, and thy homes 
are in peace. ' ' And since the dawn of Christianity in Ireland 
[what nation presents a grander history? 

Almost from the very beginning of St. Patrick's mission 
her Kings, her warriors, and her wise-men recognized in him 
a divine messenger. They listened with reverence as he told 
them of the one true God. How he came down from heaven 
and was born of an humble Virgin in Bethlehem's manger. 
How he lived on earth in poverty and misery ; how he gave 
sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb. 
And oh ! how they listened with breathless silence as he told 
them of the ingratitude of man for such benefits— of the dark 
sea of sorrow and anguish— of his passion and his crucifixion 
by those whom he had so often befriended. The recital of 
such wrongs was too much for their noble natures to endure. 
Tradition tells us how they drew their swords and with 
mighty indignation exclaimed: '^Oh, that we were there to 
avenge the death of this mild and this merciful Lord. ' ' Yes, 
they listened and they loved. They loved a religion which 
corresponded to the natural inclinations and aspirations of 
this noble race, and they vowed that never— no never, would 
they abandon the religion which Patrick had brought them. 
And thus, from the tall and stately halls of Tara down to 
the poorest cottage, from the proudest chieftain down to the 
humblest clansman, through the length and breadth of the 
land, did the pure light of Christian faith shine forth with 
noon-day splendor. Monasteries, convents and seats of 
learning sprang up on all sides, and many of her Princes and 
high born dames and maidens, forsaking the world, sought in 
the cloister that happiness the world could never give. 

Her fair valleys and smiling plains, her steep mountains 
and shady glens were adorned with religious institutions. The 



Introduction 17 

clear tones oi ine vesper bell resounded from hill to hill. A 
continuous praise was sent up to the throne of the Almighty 
and Ireland became the *'Isle of saints and scholars." The 
fame of her learning spread throughout the distant countries 
of Europe and thousands of pupils thirsting for knowledge 
came to drink it in at its fountain head. Monarchs and 
Princes invited her professors to civilize their countries, to 
found their universities and preside over their colleges, and 
Ireland became the instructress of Europe. 

In Pagan times Ireland sent her soldiers all over Europe ; 
in Christian times she sent her Missionaries. Where her / 
warriors carried the sword her missionaries carried the cross 
and planted it from the rising to the setting sun. 

And studying the political phase of Irish history, what 
student is not amazed at the almost super-human struggle for 
liberty which her people waged for centuries against the 
most ferocious tyranny and oppression? History tells us, 
that for more than seven hundred years the swords of Ire- 
land's sons were never sheathed! 

In that great struggle for national existence what a glor- 
ious history Ireland presents, what examples of noble brav- 
ery and self-sacrifice, what fidelity to God and Country, what 
loyalty to honor and manly principle, what patient resigna- 
tion in hunger and privations and above all, what purity and 
virtue on the part of the sons and daughters of Ireland! The 
names of O'Neill and 'Donnell, of Sarsfield and Wolfe Tone, 
of Grattan and 'Council, of Fitzgerald, Emmet, and Parnell, 
with a host of others who in their own sphere were equally 
famous, present a galaxy of warriors and statesmen un- 
equalled, much less surpassed by any other nation. True, 
they have not been always successful even though many of 
them sacrificed their lives upon Freedom's altar and for that 
reason, and sometimes also because they were Irishmen, the 
world occasionally minimizes their praises. To use a famil- 
iar phrase—* ' Nothing succeeds like success. ' ' Had Washing- 
ton failed in his struggle for freedom he might have been 
looked upon as a rash revolutionist aspiring for personal 
honor, but because he succeeded the world accords to him the 
glory he so justly deserves ; and if the different revolutionary 
leaders in Ireland succeeded, no doubt they also would be 
looked upon as Washingtons, Jeffersons and Franklins. But 
whether they succeeded or not they will for ever live en- 
shrined in the hearts of their countrymen, and they have given 



18 Introduction 

not only to Ireland but to the whole world the most brilliant 
examples of matchless eloquence, indomitable bravery and 
uncompromising patriotism. 

Their memories will forever keep alive the flame of liberty 
in the hearts of Irishmen until England is forced to pay hom- 
age at their shrines. 

What impresses the student of Irish history perhaps more 
than anything else, is England's policy of persistent tyranny 
and persecution of Ireland from the days of Henry II down 
to the present day. And even when England was forced to 
grant any concessions to Ireland she always did so in such a 
mean and contemptible manner as to spoil the good effects it 
might have produced. This evidently arises either from ig- 
norance or misconception of Irish character, or else from a 
determination to keep the people of Ireland in poverty, ignor- 
ance and dis-union, in order the better and easier to keep them 
under her yoke. This has been the blindest policy England 
ever pursued. She ought to have discovered long ago that 
she can never rule Ireland by tyranny, and that if she had 
treated the people of Ireland with even partial justice they 
would have been not only her best friends but also her staunch- 
est allies and defenders. Henry Grattan in his famous speech 
in favor of a native Parliament for Ireland in 1782 said: "Let 
other nations basely suppose that people were made for gov- 
ernments. Ireland had declared that govermnents were made 
for the people, and even crowns, those great luminaries, whose 
brightness they all reflect, can receive their cheering fire only 
from the pure flame of a free constitution. England has the 
plea of necessity for acknowledging the independence of 
America. For admitting Irish independence she has the plea 
of justice. America has shed much English blood and Amer- 
ica is to be set free. Ireland sheds her own blood for England 
and is Ireland to remain in fetters 1 Is Ireland to be the only 
nation whose liberty England will not acknowledge and whose 
affections she cannot subdue? We have received the Civic 
crown from our people, and shall we, like slaves, lay it down 
at the feet of British supremacy?" 

The present volume, entitled ''Ireland's Crown of Thorns 
and Eoses," supplies a long-felt want in the study of Irish 
literature. In many works on the same subject, the reader is 
liable to get lost in the maze of a remote antiquity, and in a 
vast confusion of names and dates, but all these disagreeable 
features have been almost entirely eliminated from the pres- 



Introduction 19 

ent work. It does not become tiresome or monotonous, and 
the reader does not feel like putting it aside, for it sustains 
an intense interest from beginning to end. It is as the author 
has well said in his title-page, "The Best of Irish History by 
the best of Ireland's writers, and reads as entertainingly as a 
novel. ' ' 

The brilliant array of writers and orators in connection 
with the present work ought to be its highest recommendation, 
for they are men of profound learning, and international 
fame. Their very names are enough to adorn the pages of 
any book, and there is no Irish or Irish- American family 
which should not possess, and above all, study a work of this 
kind. 

Francis L. Reynolds, P. P., 

Holy Angel's Church. 

Aurora, 111., May 15, 1904. 




Composed from the Book of Kails. 



SECTION I. 



ANCIENT IRELAND 



MOST REV. JOHN HEALY, D. D., Archbishop of Tuam 

A, M. SULLIVAN, Author of the "Story of Ireland," "New Ireland," Etc. 

VERY REV. SYLVESTER MALONE, M. R. I. A. 

THOMAS O'NEIL RUSSELL, Author of several GaeHc works 

CONTAINING 

FULL ACCOUNT OF OUR MILESIAN ANCESTORS— LEARNING 
IN IRELAND BEFORE ST. PATRICK— COMING OF 
ST. PATRICK— THE LEINSTER TRIBUTE- 
DEFEAT OF THE DANES — ST. 
PATRICK'S BURLAL PLACE 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 

Learning in Ireland Before St. Patrick. 

BY MOST rev. JOHN HEALY, D. D., ARCHBISHOP OF TUAM. 

Many writers have asserted that there was not only no 
literary culture of any kind in Ireland before the time of St. 
Patrick, but that even the use of written characters was quite 
unknown in pre-Christian Ireland. We have no intention of 
discussing this wide question in all its various aspects. We 
think, however, without becoming too learned, it can be clearly 
shown, by examining the history of even one single monarch, 
that considerable progress had been made in pagan Ireland 
both in the arts of war and peace at least two centuries before 
the advent of St. Patrick to our shores. 

The reign of Cormac Mac Art furnishes, perhaps, the most 
interesting chapter in the history of pre-Christian Ireland. 
He was, we think, the greatest king that ever reigned in ancient 
Erin. He was, as our poets tell us, a sage, a judge, and a 
scholar, as well as a great king and a skilful warrior. His 
reign furnished, indeed, many rich themes for the romantic 
poets and story-tellers of subsequent ages, in which they 
greatly indulged their perfervid Celtic indignation. But the 
leading facts of his reign are all within the limits of authentic 
history, and are provable by most satisfactory evidence. 

Cormac was the son of Art, the Solitary, or the Melan- 
choly, as he is sometimes called, and was grandson of the cele- 
brated Conn the Hundred-Fighter. Hence he is sometimes 
called Cormac O'Cuinn, as well as Cormac Mac Art. His 
father was slain about the year A. D. 195, in the great battle 
of Magh Mucruimhe where, as at the battle of Aughrim in 
the same county, a kingdom was lost and won. Magh Muc- 
ruimhe was the ancient name of the great limestone plain ex- 
tending from Athenry towards Oranmore ; and the spot where 
King Art was killed has been called Tulach Art even down to 
our own times. It was between Oranmore and Kilcornan, and 
close to the townland of Moyvaela. The victor in this great 
battle was Lughaidh, surnamed Mac Con, who had been for 
many years a refugee in Britain, and now returned with a 
king of that country and a host of foreigners to wrest the 
kingdom from Art, who was his maternal uncle. The flower 

21 



22 Introductory Chapter 

of the chivalry of Munster perished also on that fatal field; 
for the seven sons of Oilioll Olum who had come to assist 
King Art, their mother's brother, were slain to a man on the 
field or in the rout that followed. 

Fortunately for young Cormac, the king's son, he was at 
that time at fosterage in Connaught, probably with Nia Mor, 
who was his cousin, and one of the sub-kings of the province at 
that time. So Mac Con, the usurper, found no obstacle to 
prevent him assuming the sovereignty of Tara; and we are 
told that he reigned some thirty years, from A, D. 196 to A. D. 
226. 

Meantime young Cormac was carefully trained in all mar- 
tial exercises, as well as in all the learning befitting a king, 
until he came to man's estate. Then he came to Tara in dis- 
guise, and according to one account, was employed in herding 
the sheep of a poor widow, who lived close to Tara, when 
some of the sheep were seized for trespassing on the queen's 
private green or lawn. When this case of trespass was 
brought before the king in his court on the western slope of 
the Hill of Tara, he adjudged that the sheep should be for- 
feited for the trespass. *'No," said Cormac, who was pres- 
ent, * * the sheep have only eaten of the fleece of the land, and 
in justice their own fleece only should be forfeited for that 
trespass." The bystanders murmured their approval, and 
even Mac Con himself cried out: *'It is the judgTuent of a 
king," for kings were supposed to possess a kind of inspira- 
tion in giving their decisions. But immediately recognizing 
Cormac, whom he knew to be in the country, he tried to seize 
him on the spot. But Cormac leaped the mound of the Claen- 
fert, and not only succeeded in effecting his escape, but also 
in raising such a body of his and his father's friends, that he 
was able to drive the usurper from Tara. Mac Con fled to his 
own relatives in the South of Ireland, where he was shortly 
afterward killed, at a place called Gort-an-Oir, near Cahir, 
in the County Tipperary. 

So Cormac, disciplined in adversity, came to the throne in 
the year 227 A. D., according to the Four Masters. During 
the earlier years of his reign he was engaged in continual 
wars with the provincial kings, who had yet to learn that Cor- 
mac was their master in fact as well as in right. We are 
told that he fought no less than fifty battles against the pro- 
vincial kings to vindicate his own position as High King of 
Erin. The accurate Tighernach furnishes us with brief no- 



Introductory Chapter 23 

tices of these various battles against these refractory sub- 
kings. In one year he fought three battles against the Ulton- 
ians. In another he fought four times against the Momon- 
ians. The Leinster King Dunlaing, taking advantage of Cor- 
mac's absence from Tara, attacked the royal rath itself, and 
wantonly slaughtered thirty noble maidens with their atten- 
dants—thirty for each— who lived in a separate building on 
the north-western slope of Tara. Cormac promptly avenged 
this awful massacre by invading Leinster, and putting to 
death twelve sub-kings of that province, and besides he in- 
creased and enforced the payment of the ancient Borrumean 
or cow-tribute imjDosed by his predecessors on that province. 
The Ultonians, however, were his most inveterate foes; and 
twice, it seems, they succeeded in deposing him, that is, in 
driving him for some months from Tara. At length, however, 
the king gained a complete victory over his northern rivals, 
with the aid of Tadhg, a grandson of Oilioll Olum, and his 
Munster auxiliaries. Cormac rewarded the Munster hero by 
giving him, as he had promised, as much of the territory of 
Meath as Tadhg could drive round in his chariot from the 
close of the battle till sunset. The veteran hero, spent with 
loss of blood and battle toil, still contrived to drive his chariot 
round a district extending from Duleek to the Liffey, which 
was afterwards called Cianachta— the land of Cian's descend- 
ants, Tadhg 's father was a Cian, son of Oilioll Olum, hence 
the name. 

Cormac, now undisputed master of his kingdom, took 
measures to preserve the public peace and secure the prosper- 
ity of his dominions. He was the first, and we may also say, 
the last king of Erin, who maintained a standing army to 
check the arrogance of his turbulent sub-kings. This Fenian 
militia was, it is said, modeled after the Roman legions which 
Cormac might have seen or heard of at the time in Britain. 
They were quartered on the people in winter ; but in summer 
they lived on the produce of the chase, and gave all their leis- 
ure to martial exercises. By this means they became most 
accomplished in all feats of arms, and the fame of these Fen- 
ian heroes has come down to our own time in the living tradi- 
tions of the people. The celebrated Finn Mac Cumhail was 
their general— a poet, too, it was said, he was, and a scholar, 
as well as a renowned warrior. Ossian, the hero-poet, was his 
son, and the brave, gentle Oscar, who fell in the fatal field of 
Gavra, was his grandson. We are told, too, that Cormac kept 



24 Intkoductory Chapter 

a fleet on the sea for three years, and doubtless swept away 
the pirate ships of Britain and the islands that used to make 
descents from time to time on the eastern coast of Ireland. 

But it is with the literary history of King Cormac's reign 
we are most concerned, and to this we invite the special at- 
tention of the reader. His first work was to re-establish the 
ancient Feis of Tara. 

Tara even then had been the residence of the High Kings 
of Erin from immemorial ages. Slainge, the first king of 
the Firbolgs, was its reputed founder, and all the kings of 
that colony, as well as of the Tuatha de Danaan and the 
Milesian race, had generally dwelt on the same royal hill. 
Ollamh Fodhla, one of the most renowned kings in the bar- 
dic history, ''reigned forty years and died in his own house 
at Tara." It is said that this king was the first who con- 
vened the great Feis of Tara to legislate in solemn assembly 
for all the tribes of Erin. 'Flaherty adds that the same 
ancient monarch founded a ''Mur Ollamhan" or college of 
learned doctors at Tara; but Petrie could find no authority 
for this statement except the term *'Mur Ollamhan," which 
might, however, simply mean the mur, or fortified house of 
Ollamh Fodhla himself. 

During the shadowy period that follows down to the Chris- 
tian era, we hear little of Tara, even in the bardic history. 
An undoubtedly historical king, Tuathal Teachtmar, about 
the year 85 of the Christian era, took a portion of each of the 
four provinces to make a mensal demesne for the High King 
of Tara. He convened the states of the kingdom, too, on the 
royal hill in solemn assembl)^, and induced the assembled 
kings and chiefs to swear on all the elements that they would 
always yield obedience to the princes of his race. 

The Feis of Tara, then, was in existence before the time 
of Cormac, but it was seldom convened and had almost fallen 
into disuse. Cormac it was who made arrangements for the 
regular meetings of this great parliament of the nation, and 
provided adequate accommodation for the assembled notables. 
Here we are on firm historic ground, and can enter into more 
minute details with security. 

The object of this Feis of Tara was mainly three-fold. 
First, to enact and promulgate what was afterwards called the 
cain-law, which was obligatory in all the territories and tribes 
of the kingdom, as distinguished from the urradhas, or local 
law. Secondly, to test and sanction the Annals of Erin. For 



n 



Introductory Chapter 25 

this purpose the local Seanachies or historians brought in a 
record of the notable events that took place in their own terri- 
tories. These were publicly read for the assembly, and when 
duly authenticated were entered on the great record of the 
King of Tara, called afterwards the ''Saltair of Tara." 
Thirdly, to record in the same great national record the gene- 
alogies of the ruling families, to assess the taxes, and settle 
all cases of disputed succession among the tribes of the king- 
dom. Too often was this done by the strong hand ; but it 
was Cormac's idea to fix the succession, as far as possible, 
according to definite principles amongst the ruling families. 
The neglect of a strong central government to enforce this 
most wise provision was one main cause of the subsequent 
distracted state of the kingdom. 

This great national assembly, convened for these pur- 
poses, met once every three years. The session continued 
for a week, beginning the third day before, and ending the 
third day after November Day. When so many turbulent 
chieftains, oftentimes at feud amongst themselves, met to- 
gether, it was necessary to keep the peace of Tara by very 
stringent regulations, enforced under the most rigorous pen- 
alties. It is to Cormac's prudent forethought we owe these 
regulations, which were afterwards inviolably observed as 
the law of Tara. Every provincial king and every sub-king 
had his own fixed place alloted to him near the High King 
by the Marshals of Tara ; and every chief was bound to take 
his seat under the place where his shield was hung upon the 
wall. Brawling was strictly forbidden, and to wound another 
was a capital crime. 

In order to provide suitable accommodation for this great 
assembly, Cormac erected the Teach Miodhchuarta, which 
was capable of accommodating 1,000 persons, and was at once 
a parliament house, banquet hall and hotel. We have two 
accounts of this great building, as well as of the monuments 
at Tara, written about nine hundred years ago— one in poetry, 
the other in prose. The statements made by these ancient 
writers have been verified in every essential point by the 
measurements of the officers of the Ordnance Survey, who 
were enabled from these documents to fix the position and 
identity of all these ancient monuments at Tara. 

"The TeacJi Miodhchuarta/' says the old prose writer in 
the Dinnseanchus, '.4s to the north-west of the eastern mound. 
The ruins of this house— it was then in ruins— are situate 



26 Introductory Chapter 

thus : the lower part to the north and the higher part to the 
south; and walls are raised about it to the east and to the 
west. The northern side of it is enclosed and small, the lie 
of it is north and south. It is in the form of a long house, 
with twelve doors upon it, or fourteen, seven to the west and 
seven to the east. This was the great house of a thousand 
soldiers." We ourselves have lunched on the grass-green 
floor of this once famous hall, and we can of our own knowl- 
edge testify to the accuracy of this ancient writer. The open- 
ings for the doors can still be traced in the enclosing mound, 
and, curiously enough, one is so nearly obliterated that it is 
difficult still to say whether there were six or seven openings 
on each side. The building was seven hundred and sixty feet 
long, and originally nearly ninety feet wide, according to 
Petrie's measurements. There was a double row of benches 
on each side, running the entire length of the hall. In the 
centre there was a number of fires in a line between the 
benches, and over the fires there was a row of spits depending 
from the roof, at which a large number of joints might be 
roasted. There is in the Book of Leinster a ground-plan of 
the building, and the rude figure of a cook in the centre turning 
the spit with his mouth open, and a ladle in his hand to baste 
the joint. 

The king of Erin took his place at the head of the hall to 
the south, surrounded by the provincial kings. The nobles 
and officers were arranged on either side according to their 
dignity, down to the lowest, or northern end of the hall, which 
was crowded with butlers, scullions and retainers. They 
slept at night under the couches or sometimes upon them. 

The appearance of Cormac at the head of this great hall 
is thus described in an extract copied into the Book of Bally- 
mote from the older and now lost Book of Navan : 

"Beautiful was the appearance of Cormac in that assem- 
bly. Flowing and slightly curling was his golden hair. A red 
buckler with stars and animals of gold, and fastenings of sil- 
ver upon him. A crimson cloak in wide descending folds 
around him, fastened at his neck with precious stones. A neck 
torque of gold around his neck. A white shirt with a full col- 
lar, and intertwined with red gold thread, upon him. A girdle 
of gold inlaid with precious stones was around him. Two 
wonderful shoes of gold, with golden loops, upon his feet. Two 
spears with golden sockets in his hands, with many rivets of 



Introductory Chapter 27 

red bronze. And he was himself besides symmetrical and 
beautiful of form, without blemish or reproach." 

This might be deemed a purely imaginary description if 
the collection of antiquities in the Eoyal Irish Academy did 
not prove beyond doubt that similar golden ornaments to those 
referred to in this passage were of frequent use in Ireland. 
In the year 1810 two neck torques of purest gold similar to 
those described above were found on the Hill of Tara itself, 
and are now to be seen in the Academy's collection. 

*'Alas," says an old writer, ''Tara to-day is desolate, it 
is a green, grassy land, but it was once a noble hill to view, 
the mansion of warlike heroes, in the days of Cormac 'Cuinn 
—when Cormac was in his glory. ' ' 

Everything at Tara, even its present desolation, is full of 
interest, and reminds us of the days ''when Cormac was in his 
glory. ' ' His house is there within the circle of the great Rath 
na Riogli. The mound where he kept his hostages may still be 
seen beside his Eath. The stream issuing from the well 
Neamhnach, on which he built the first mill in Ireland for his 
handmaiden, Ciarnaid, to spare her the labor of grinding with 
the quern, still flows down the eastern slope of Tara Hill, and 
still, says Petrie, turns a mill. Even the well on the western 
slope beside which Cormac 's cuchtair, or kitchen, was built, 
has been discovered. The north-western claenfert, or decliv- 
ity, where he corrected the false judgment of King Mac Con 
about the trespass of the widow's sheep, may still be traced. 
The Eath of his Mother, Maeve, may be seen not far from 
Tara, and to the west of the Teach Miodhchuarta may be 
noticed Eath Graine, the sunny palace of his daughter, the 
faithless spouse of Finn Mac Cumhail. 

O'Fiaherty tells us on the authority of an old poem found 
in the Book of Shane Mor O'Dugan, who flourished about 
1390, that Cormac founded three schools at Tara— one for 
teaching the art of war, the second for the study of history, 
and the third was a school of jurisprudence. This is ex- 
tremely probable, especially as Cormac himself was an accom- 
plished scholar in all these sciences. This brings us to the 
literary works attributed to Cormac Mac Art by all our 
ancient Irish scholars. 

The first of these is a treatise still extant in manuscript 
entitled Teagusc na Riogh or Institutio Principum. It is as- 
cribed to King Cormac in the Book of Leinster written be- 
fore the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland. It is in the 



28 Introductory Chapter 

form of a dialogue between Cormae and his son and successor 
Cairbre Lifeacbair; "and," says the quaint old MacGeogbe- 
gan, "tbis book contains as goodly precepts and moral docu- 
ments as Cato or Aristotle did ever write." Tbe language 
is of tbe most archaic type, but extracts have been translated 
and published in the Dublin Penny Journal. 

A still more celebrated work, now unfortunately lost, the 
Saltair of Tara, has been universally attributed to Cormae 
by Irish scholars. Perhaps we should rather say it was com- 
piled under his direction. "It contained," says an ancient 
writer in the Book of Ballymote, "the synchronisms and gene- 
alogies, as well as the succession of the Irish kings and mon- 
archs, their battles, their contests, and their antiquities from 
the world's beginning down to the time it was written. And 
this is 'the Saltair of Tara, which is the origin and fountain 
of the histories of Erin from that period down to the present 
time." "This," adds the writer in the Book of Ballymote, 
"is taken from the Book of Machongbhail"— that is, the Book 
of Navan, a still more ancient but now lost work. Not only 
does the writer in the ancient Book of Navan, and the copy- 
ist in the Book of Ballymote, expressl}^ attribute this work 
to Cormae, but a still more ancient authority, the poet Cuan 
O'Lochain, who died in 1024, has this stanza in his poem on 
Tara: 

"He (Cormae) compiled the Saltair of Tara, 

In that Saltair is contained 

The best summary of history. 

It is the Saltair which assigns 

Seven chief kings to Erin of harbours, &c., &e." 

And it is, indeed, self-evident to the careful student of our 
annals that there must have been some one ancient "origin 
and fountain" from which the subsequent historians of Erin 
have derived their information, and existing monuments prove 
it to be quite accurate— concerning the reign of Corm^ac and 
his more immediate predecessors in Ireland. The man who 
restored the Feis of Tara, and who, as we shall presently see, 
was also a celebrated judge and lawyer, was exactly such a 
person of forethought and culture as would gather together 
the poets and historians of his kingdom to execute under his 
own immediate direction this great work for the benefit of 
posterity. Keating tells us that it was called the Saltair of 
Tara because the chief Ollave of Tara had it in his official 



Introductory Chapter 29 

custody; and as Cormac Mac Cullman's Chronicle was called 
the Saltair of Cashel, and the Festilogimn of Aengus the 
Cuidee was called the Saltair na Eann, so this great compila- 
tion was named the Saltair of Tara. This, as 'Curry re- 
marks, disposes of Petrie's objection that its name would 
rather indicate the Christian origin of the book. The answer 
is simple— Cormac never called the book by this name, any 
more than the compilers of the great works like the Book of 
Bailymote or the Book of Leinster ever called those great 
compilations by their present names. 

Cormac was also a distinguished jurist— of that we have 
conclusive evidence in the Book of Aicill, which has been pub- 
lished in the third volume of the Brehon Law publications. 
The book itself is most explicit as to its authorship, and every- 
tliing in the text goes to confirm the statements in the intro- 
duction, part of which is worth reproducing here. 

''The place of this book is Aicill, close to Temhair (Tara), 
and its time is the time of Coirpri Lifechair, son of Cormac, 
and its author is Cormac, and the cause of its having been 
composed was the blinding of the eye of Cormac by ^ngus 
Gabhuaiedch, after the abduction of the daughter of Sorar, 
son of Art Corb, by Cellach, son of Cormac." 

The author then tells us how the spear of ^ngus grazed 
the eye of Cormac and blinded him. 

''Then Cormac was sent out to be cured by AicilJ (the Hill 
of Skreen) . . . and the sovereigntj^ of Erin was given 
to Coirpri Lifechair, son of Cormac, for it was prohibited that 
anyone with a blemish should be king at Tara, and in everj^ 
difficult case of judgment that came to him he (Coirpri) used 
to go to ask liis father about it, and his father used to say to 
him, 'My son, that thou mayest know' (the law), and 'the 
exemptions'; and these words are at the beginning of all his 
explanations. And it was there, at Aicill, that this book was 
thus composed, and wherever the words 'exemptions,' and 
'my son that thou mayest know', occur was Cormac 's part of 
the book, and Cennfaeladh's part the rest." 

This proves beyond doubt that the greatest portion of this 
Book of Aicill was written by Cormac at Skreen, near Tara, 
when disqualified for holding the sovereignty on account of 
his wound. It was a treatise written for the benefit of his son 
unexpectedly called to fill the monarch's place at Tara. The 
text, too, bears out this account. Cormac apparently fur- 
nished the groundwork of the present volume by writing for 



30 Introductory Chapter 

his son's use a series of maxims or principles on the criminal 
law of Erin, which were afterwards developed by Cormac 
himself and by subsequent commentators. That the archaic 
legal maxims so enunciated in the Book of Aicill were once 
written by Cormac himself there can be no reasonable doubt ; 
although it is now quite impossible to ascertain how far the 
development of the text was the work of Cormac or of subse- 
quent legal authorities, who doubtless added to and modified 
the commentary whilst they left Cormac 's text itself un- 
changed. 

This Book of Aicill, the authenticity of which cannot, we 
think, be reasonably questioned, proves beyond all doubt that 
in the third century of the Christian era there was a consider- 
able amount of literary culture in Celtic Ireland. These works 
are still extant in the most archaic form of the Irish language ; 
they have been universally attributed to Cormac Mac Art for 
the last ten centuries by all our Irish scholars; the intrinsic 
evidence of their authorship and antiquity is equally striking 
—why then should we reject this mass of evidence, and accept 
the crude theories of certain modfern pretenders in the antiq- 
uities of Ireland, who without even knowing the language, un- 
dertake to tell us that there was no knowledge of the use of 
writing in Ireland before St. Patrick? 

And is not such an assertion a priori highly improbable? 
The Romans had conquered Britain in the time of Agrieola— 
the first century of the Christian era. The Britons themselves 
had very generally become Christians during the second and 
third centuries, and had to some extent at least been imbued 
with Roman civilization. Frequent intercourse, sometimes 
friendly and sometimes hostile, existed between the Irish and 
Welsh tribes especially. A British king was killed at the bat- 
tle of Magh Mucruimhe in Galway where Cormac 's own father 
was slain. The allies of Mac Con on that occasion were Brit- 
ish. He himself had spent the years of his exile in Wales. 
Captives from Ireland were carried to Britain, and captives 
from Britain were carried to Ireland. Is it likely, then, that 
when the use of letters was quite common in Britain for three 
centuries no knowledge of their use would have come to Ire- 
land until the advent of St. Patrick in the fifth century of the 
Christian era? 

There is an ancient and well-founded tradition that Cor- 
mac Mac Art died a Christian, or as the Four Masters say, 
"turned from the religion of the Druids to the worship of 



i 



Introductory Chapter 31 

the true God." It is in itself highly probable. Some knowl- 
edge of Christianity must have penetrated into Ireland even 
so early as the reign of Cormac Mac Art. It is quite a popu- 
lar error to suppose that there were no Christians in Ireland 
before the time of St. Patrick. Palladius had been sent from 
Bome before him ''to the Scots," that is the Irish, ''who be- 
lieved in Christ. ' ' Besides that intimate connection between 
Ireland and Britain, of which we have spoken, must have car- 
ried some knowledge of Christianity, as well as the letters, 
from one country to the other. King Lucius, the first Chris- 
tion King of the British, flourished quite half of a century 
before the time of Cormac. Tertullian speaks of the isles 
of the Britains as subject to Christ about the time that Cor- 
mac 's father. Art, was slain at Magh Mucruimhe. There was 
a regularly organized hierarchy in England during the third 
century, and three of their bishops were present at the Coun- 
cil of Aries in 314. 

Nothing is more likely then that the message of the Gos- 
pels was brought from England to the ears of King Cormac, 
and that a prince, so learned and so wise, gave up the old re- 
ligion of the Druids, and embraced the new religion of peace 
and love. 

But it was a dangerous thing to do even for a king. The 
Druids were very popular and very influential, and more- 
over possessed, it was said, dreadful magic powers. They 
showed it afterwards in the time of St. Patrick, and now they 
show it when they heard Cormac had given up the old re- 
ligion of Erin, and become a convert to the new worship from 
the East. The king's death was caused by the bone of a sal- 
mon sticking in his throat, and it was universally believed that 
this painful death was brought about by the magical power 
of Maelgenn, the chief of the Druids. 

"They loosed their curse against the king, 
They cursed him in his flesh and bones ; 

And daily in their mystic ring 
They turned the maledictive stones. 

"Till where at meat the monarch safe, 

Amid the revel and the wine, 
'He choked upon the food he ate 

At Cletty, southward of the Boyne.*' 



o2 Introductory Chapter 

So perished, A. D. 267, the wisest and best of the ancient 
kings of Erin. Cormac, when dying, told his people not to 
bury him in the pagan cemetery of Brugh on the Boyne, but 
at Rossnaree, where he first believed, and with his face to 
the rising sun. But when the king was dead, his captains de- 
clared they would bury their king with his royal sires in 
Brugh : 

**Dead Cormac on his bier they laid; 

He reigned a king for forty years, 
And shame it were, his captains said, 
He lay not with his royal peers. 

**What though a dying man should rave 

Of changes o 'er the eastern sea ; 
In Brugh of Boyne shall be his grave 

And not in noteless Rossnaree.** 

So they prepared to cross the fords of Boyne, and bury 
the king at Brugh. But royal Boyne was loyal to its dead 
king; "the deep full-hearted river rose" to bar the way; 
and when the bearers attempted to cross the ford, the swell- 
ing flood swept them from their feet, and caught up the bier, 
and * 'proudly bore away the king" on its own heaving bosom. 
Next morning the corpse was found on the bank of the river 
at Rossnaree, and was duly interred within the hearing of its 
murmuring waters. There great Cormac was left to his rest 
with his face to the rising sun, awaiting the dawning of that 
glory which was soon to lighten over the hills and valleys of 
his native land. John Healy, D. D., 

Archbishop of Tuam, 



FROM MILESIAN TO DANE. 

BY A. M. SULLIVAN. 



CHAPTER I. 

OUK MILESIAN" FOREFATHEKS— THE THEEE QUEENS FEOM WHOM 
IRELAND DERIVED HER POETICAL NAMES. 

The earliest settlement or colonization of Ireland of which 
there is tolerably precise and satisfactory information, was 
•that by the sons of Miledh or Milesius, from which the Irish 
are occasionally styled Milesians. There are abundant evi- 
dences that at least two or three ''waves" of colonization 
had long previously reached the island; but it is not very 
clear whence they came. Those first settlers are severally 
known in history as the Partholanians, the Nemedians, the 
Firbolgs, and the Tuatha de Danaans. These latter, who 
immediately preceded the Milesians, possessed a civilization 
and a knowledge of ''arts and sciences," which, limited as 
we may be sure it was, greatly amazed the earlier settlers by 
the results it produced. To the Firbolgs (the more early set- 
tlers) the wonderful things done by the conquering new-com- 
ers, and the wonderful knowledge they displayed, could only 
be the results of supernatural power. Accordingly they set 
down the Tuatha de Danaans as "magicians," an idea which 
the Milesians, as we shall presently see, also adopted. 

The Firbolgs seem to have been a pastoral race; the 
Tuatha de Danaans were more of a manufacturing and com- 
mercial people. The soldier Milesian came, and he ruled 
over all. 

The Milesian colony reached Ireland from Spain, but they 
were not Spaniards. They were an eastern people who had 
tarried in that country on their way westward, seeking, they 
said, an island promised to the posterity of their ancestor, 
Gadelius. Moved by this mysterious purpose to fulfill their 
destiny, they had passed from land to land, from the shores 
of Asia across the wide expanse of southern Europe, bearing 
aloft through all their wanderings the Sacred Banner, which 
symbolized to them at once their origin and their mission, the 

35 



36 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

blessing and the promise given to their race. This celebrated 
standard, the ''Sacred Banner of the Milesians," was a flag 
on which was represented a dead serpent and the rod of 
Moses ; a device to commemorate forever amongst the poster- 
ity of Gadelius, the miracle by which his life had been saved. 
The story of this event, treasured with singular pertinacity 
by the Milesians, is told as follows in their traditions, which 
so far I have been following : 

"While Gadelius, being yet a child, was sleeping one day, 
he was bitten by a poisonous serpent. His father— Niul, a 
younger son of the king of Scythia— carried the child to the 
camp of the Israelites, then close by, where the distracted 
parent with tears and prayers implored the aid of Moses. 
The inspired leader was profoundly touched by the anguish of 
Niul. He laid the child down, and prayed over him ; then he 
touched with his rod the wound, and the boy arose healed. 
Then, say the Milesians, the man of God promised or prophe- 
sied for the posterity of the young prince, that they should 
inhabit a country in which no venomous reptile could live, 
an island which they should seek and find in the track of the 
setting sun. 

It was not, however, until the third generation subse- 
quently that the descendants and people of Gadelius are found 
setting forth on their prophesied wanderings ; and of this mi- 
gration itself —of the adventures and fortunes of the Gadelian 
colony in its journeyings— the history would make a volume. 
At length we find them tarrying in Spain, where they built a 
city, Brigantia, and occupied and ruled a certain extent of 
territory. It is said that Ith (pronounced ''Eeh") uncle of 
Milesius, an adventurous explorator, had in his cruising 
northward of the Brigantian coast, sighted the Promised Isle, 
and, landing to explore it, was attacked by the inhabitants 
(Tuatha de Danaans) and mortally wounded ere he could 
regain his ship. He died at sea on the way homeward. His 
body was reverentially preserved and brought back to Spain 
by his son, Lui (spelled Lugaid), who had accompanied him 
and who now summoned the entire Milesian host to the last 
stage of their destined wanderings— to avenge the death of 
Ith, and occupy the promised isle. The old patriarch him- 
self, Miledli, had died before Lui arrived; but his sons all 
responded quickly to the summons; and the widowed queen, 
their mother, Scota, placed herself at the head of the expedi- 
tion, which soon sailed in thirty galleys for ''the isle they had 



Ancient Ireland 37 

seen in dreams. ' ' The names of the sons of Milesius, who thus 
sailed for Ireland, were, Heber the Fair, Amergin, Heber the 
Brown, Coljpa, Ir, and lieremon, and the date of this event 
is generally supposed to have been about fourteen hundred 
years before the birth of our Lord. 

At the time Ireland, known as Innis Ealga (the Noble 
Isle), was ruled over by three brothers, Tuatha de Danaan 
princes, after whose wives (who were three sisters) the island 
Yfas alternately called Eire, Banba (or Banva) and Fiola 
(spelled Fodhla), by which names Ireland is still frequently 
styled in national poems. Whatever diinculties or obstacles 
beset the Milesians in landing they at once attributed to the 
'' necromancy" of the Tuatha de Danaans, and the old tradi- 
tions narrate amusing stories of the contest between the re- 
sources of magic and the power of Valour. When the Mile- 
sians could not discover land where they thought to sight it, 
they simply agreed that the Tuatha de Danaans had by their 
black arts rendered it invisible. At length they descried the 
island, its tall blue hills touched by the last beams of the set- 
ting sun, and from the galleys there arose a shout of joy; 
Innisfail, the Isle of Destiny, was found. But lo, next morn- 
ing the land was submerged, until only a low ridge appeared 
above the ocean. A de^dce of the magicians, say the Milesians. 
Nevertheless, they reached the shore and made good their 
landing. The ''magician" inhabitants, however, stated that 
this was not conquest by the rules of war; that they had no 
standing army to oppose the Milesians ; but if the new-comers 
would again take to their galleys they should, if able once 
more to effect a landing, be recognized as masters of the isle 
by the laws of war. 

The Milesians did not much like the proposition. They 
feared much the ' ' necromancy ' ' of the Tuatha de Danaans. It 
had cost them trouble enough already to get their feet upon 
the soil, and they did not greatly relish the idea of having to 
begin it all over again. They debated the point, and it was 
resolved to submit the case to the decision of Amergin, who 
was the Ollave (the Learned Man, Lawgiver, or Seer) of the 
expedition. Amergin, strange to say, decided on the merits 
against his own brothers and kinsmen, and in favor of the ' 
Tuatha de Danaans. Accordingly, with scrupulous obedience 
of his decision, the Milesians relinquished all they had so far 
won. They re-embarked in their galleys, and as demanded, 
withdrew "nine waves off from the shore." Immediately a 



38 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

hurricane, raised, say their versions, by the spells of the 
magicians on shore, burst over the fleet, dispersing it in all 
directions. Several of the princes and chiefs and their wives 
and retainers were drowned. The Milesians paid dearly for 
their chivalrous acquiescence in the rather singular proposi- 
tion of the inhabitants endorsed by the decision of Amergin. 
When they did land next time, it was not in one combined 
force, but in detachments widely separated ; some at the mouth 
of the Boyne ; others on the Kerry coast. A short but fiercely 
contested campaign decided the fate of the kingdom. In the 
first great pitched battle, which was fought in a glen a few 
miles south of Tralee, the Milesians were victorious. But 
they lost the aged Queen-Mother, Scota, who fell amidst the 
slain, and was buried beneath a royal cairn in Glen Scohene, 
close by. Indeed the Queens of ancient Ireland figure very 
prominently in our history, as we shall learn as we proceed. 
In the final engagement, which was fought at Tailtan in 
Meath, between the sons of Milesius and the three Tuatha de 
Danaan kings, the latter were utterly and finally defeated, and 
were themselves slain. And with their husbands, the three 
brothers, there fell upon that dreadful day, when crown and 
country, home and husband, all were lost to them, the three 
sisters. Queens Eire, Banva and Fiola! 




Composed from Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER II. 

PROOFS OF Ireland's early civilization— the trienneal par- 
liament OF TARA. 

It is unnecessary to follow through their details the pro- 
ceedings of the Milesian princes in the period immediately 
subsequent to the landing. It will suffice to state that in a 
comparatively brief time they subdued the country, enter- 
ing, however, into regular pacts, treaties, or alliances, with the 
conquered but not powerless Firbolgs and Tuatha de Danaans. 
According to the constitution under which Ireland was gov- 
erned for more than a thousand years, the population of the 
island were distinguished in two classes— the Free Clans, and 
the Unfree Clans; the former being the descendants of the 
Milesian legions, the latter the descendants of the subjected 
Tuatha de Danaans and Firbolgs. The latter were allowed 
certain rights and privileges, and to a great extent regulated 
their own internal affairs ; but they could not vote in the selec- 
tion of a sovereign, nor exercise any other of the attributes of 
full citizenship without special leave. Indeed, those subject 
populations occasioned the conquerors serious trouble by 
their hostility from time to time for centuries afterwards. 
The sovereignty of the island was jointly vested in, or as- 
sumed by, Heremon and Heber— the Romulus and Remus 
of ancient Ireland. Like these twin brothers, who, seven hun- 
dred years later on, founded Rome, Heber and Heremon quar- 
relled in the sovereignty. In a pitched battle fought between 
them, Heber was slaim, and Heremon remained sole ruler of 
the Island. For more than a thousand years the dynasty thus 
established reigned in Ireland, the sceptre never passing out 
of the family of Milesius in the direct line of descent, unless 
upon one occasion (to which we shall more fully advert at 
the proper time) for the brief period of less than twenty 
years. The Milesian appears to have exhibited considerable 
energy in organizing the country and establishing what we 
call ''institutions," some of which have been adopted or cop- 
ied, with improvements and adaptations, by the most civilized 
governments of the present day; and the island advanced in 
renown for valor, for wealth, for manufactures, and for com- 
merce. By this, however, our readers are not to suppose that 

39 



40 Ikeland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

anything like the civilization of our times, ot even faintly ap- 
proaching that to which Greece and Rome afterwards at- 
tained, prevailed at this period in Ireland. Not so. But, 
compared with the civilization of its own period in Northern 
and Western Europe, and recollecting how isolated and how 
far removed Ireland was from the great center and source of 
colonization and civilization in the East, the civilization of 
pagan Ireland must be admitted to have been proudly eminent. 
In the works remaining to us of the earliest writers of ancient 
"Rome, we find references to Ireland that test the high position 
it then held in the estimation of the most civilized and learned 
nations of antiquity. From our own historians we know that 
more than fifteen hundred years before the birth of our Lord, 
gold mining and smelting, and artistic workings in the prec- 
ious metals, were carried on to a great extent in Ireland. 
Numerous facts might be adduced to prove that a high order 
of political, social, industrial and intellectual intelligence pre- 
vailed in the country. Even in an age which was rudely bar- 
baric elsewhere all over the world, the superiority of intellect 
or force of the scholar over the soldier, was not only recog- 
nized, but decreed by legislation in Ireland ! We find in the 
Irish chronicles that in the reign of Eochy the First (more 
than a thousand years before Christ) society was classified 
into seven grades, each marked by the number of colors in 
its dress, and that in this classification men of learning, i. e., 
eminent scholars, or savants as they would now be called, 
were by law ranked next to royalty. But the most signal 
proof of all, attesting the existence in Ireland at that period 
of a civilization marvellous for its time, was the celebrated 
institution of the Feis Tara, or triennial parliament of Tara, 
one of the first formal parliaments or legislative assemblies 
of which we have record. This great national legislative as- 
sembly was instituted by an Irish monarch, whose name sur- 
vives as a synonym of wisdom and justice, Ollav Fiola, who 
reigned as Ard Ri of Erinn about one thoucand years before 
the birth of Christ. To this assembly were regularly sum- 
moned : 

Firstly— All the subordinate royal princes or chieftains; 

Secondly— Ollaves and bards, judges, scholars and his- 
torians; and, 

Thirdly— Military commanders. 

We have in the old records the most precise accounts of 
the formalities observed at the opening and during the sitting 



Ancient Ireland 41 

of the assembly, from which we learn that its proceedings 
were regulated with admirable order and conducted with the 
greatest solemnity. Nor was the institution of ''Triennial 
parliaments ' ' the only instance in which this illustrious Irish 
monarch over two thousand eight hundred years ago, antici- 
pated to a certain extent the forms of constitutional govern- 
ment of which the nineteenth century is so proud. In the civil 
administration of the kingdom the same enlightened wisdom 
was displayed. He organized the country into regular pre- 
fectures. ''Over every cantred," says the historian, "he ap- 
pointed a chieftain, and over every town land a kind of a pre- 
fect or secondary chief, all being the officials of the king of 
Ireland.'" After a reign of more than forty years, this "true 
Irish King" died at an advanced age, having lived to witness 
long the prosperity, happiness and peace which his noble ef- 
forts had diffused all over the realm. His real name was 
Eochy the Fourth, but he is more familiarly known in history 
by the title of "Ollav Fiola," that is, the "OUav," or law- 
giver, pre-eminently of Ireland. 

Though the comparative civilization of Ireland at this re- 
mote time was so high, the annals of the period disclosed the 
usual recurrence of wars for the throne between rival mem- 
bers of the same dynasty, which early and mediaeval history 
in general exhibits. Reading over the history of ancient Ire- 
land, as of ancient Greece, Rome, Assyria, Gaul, Britain or 
Spain, one is struck by the number of sovereigns who fell by 
violent deaths, and the fewness of those who ended their 
reigns otherwise. But those were the days when between 
Kings and princes, chiefs and warriors, the sword was the 
ready arbiter that decided all causes, executed all judgments, 
avenged all wrongs, and accomplished all ambitions. More- 
over, it is essential to bear in mind that the kings of those 
times commanded and led their own armies not in theory 
but in reality and fact; and that personal participation in 
the battle and prowess in the field was expected and necessary 
on the part of the royal commander. Under such circum- 
stances, one can easily perceive how it came to pass, naturally 
and inevitably, that the battle-field became ordinarily the 
death bed of the king. In those early times the kings who did 
not fall by the sword, in fair battle or unfair assault, were the 
exceptions everywhere. Yet it is a remarkable fact that we 
find the average duration of the reigns of Irish monarchs, for 
fifteen hundred or two thousand years after the Milesian 



42 ^ Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

dynasty ascended the throne, was as long as that of most 
European reigns in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries. Several of the Milesian sovereigns enjoyed reigns 
extending to over thirty years ; some to fifty years. Many of 
them were highly accomplished and learned men, liberal pa- 
trons of arts, science and commerce; and as one of them, 
fourteen hundred years before the Christian era, instituted 
regularly convened parliaments, so we find others of them in- 
stituting orders of knighthood and Companionships of Chiv- 
alry long before we hear of their establishment elsewhere. 

The Irish kings of this period, as well as during the first 
ten centuries of the Christian era, in frequent instances inter- 
married with the royal families of other countries— Spain, 
Gaul, Britain and Alba ; and the commerce and manufactures 
of Ireland were, as the early Latin writers acquaint us, famed 
in all the marts and ports of Europe. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER in. 

THE FEEE AND THE UNFREE CLANS— THE ROMANS AFRAID TO LAND 

IN IRELAND. 

During those fifteen hundred years preceding the Chris- 
tian era, the other great nations of Europe, the Romans and 
the Greeks, were passing, by violent changes and bloody con- 
vulsions, through nearly every conceivable form of govern- 
ment—republics, confederations, empires, kingdoms, limited 
monarchies, despotisms, consulates, etc. During the like 
period (fifteen centuries) the one form of government, a lim- 
ited monarchy, and the one dynasty, the Milesian, ruled in 
Ireland. The monarchy was elective, but elective out of the 
eligible members of the established or legitimate dynasty. 

Indeed, the principle of '* legitimacy," as it is sometimes 
called in our times— the hereditary right of a ruling family or 
dynasty— seems from the earliest ages to have been devotedly, 
we might almost say superstitiously, held by the Irish. Wars 
for the crown, and violent changes of rulers, were always 
frequent enough, but the wars and the changes were always 
between members of the ruling family or ** blood royal"; and 
the two or three instances to the contrary that occur, are so 
singularly strong in their illustration of the fact to which 
we have adverted, that we will cite one of them here. 

The Milesians and the earlier settlers never com- 
pletely fused. Fifteen hundred years after the Milesian land- 
ing, the Firbolgs, the Tuatha de Danaans, and the Milesians 
were substantially distinct races or classes, the first being 
agriculturalists or tillers of the soil, the second manufacturers 
and merchants, the third soldiers and rulers. The exactions 
and oppressions of the ruling classes at one time became so 
grievous that in the reign succeeding that of Creivan the 
Second, who was the ninety-ninth Milesian monarch of Ire- 
land, a wide-spread conspiracy was organized for the over- 
throw and extirpation of the Milesian princes and aristocracy. 
After three years of secret preparation, everything being 
ready, the royal and noble Milesian families, one and all, were 
invited to a ** monster meeting" for games, exhibitions, f east- 
ings, etc., on the plain of Knock Ma, in the county of Gralway. 
The great spectacle had lasted nine days, when suddenly the 

43 



44 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Milesians were set upon by the Attacotti (as the Latin chron- 
iclers called the conspirators), and massacred to a man. Of 
the royal line there escaped, however, three princes, yet un- 
born. Their mothers, wives of Irish princes, were the daugh- 
ters respectively of the Idngs of Scotland, Saxony and Brit- 
tany. They succeeded in escaping into Albion, where the 
three young princes were born and educated. The success- 
ful conspirators raised to the throne Carbry the First, who 
reigned five years, during which time, say the chronicles, the 
country was a prey to every misfortune ; the earth refused to 
yield, the waters had no fish, the cattle gave no milk, the trees 
bore no fruit, and ' ' the oak had but one acorn. ' ' Carbry was 
succeeded by his son, Moran, whose name deservedly lives in 
Irish history as ' ' Moran the Just. ' ' He refused to wear the 
crown, which belonged, he said, to the royal line that had been 
so miraculously preserved; and he urged that the rightful 
princes, who by this time had grown to man's estate, should be 
recalled. Moran 's powerful pleading commended itself read- 
ily to the popular conscience, already disquieted by the mis- 
fortunes and evil omens which, as the people read them, had 
fallen upon the land since the legitimate line had been so 
dreadfully cut down. The young princes were recalled from 
exile, and one of them, Faradah the Righteous, was, amidst 
great rejoicing, elected king of Ireland. Moran was appointed 
chief judge of Erinn, and under his administration of justice 
the land long presented a scene of peace, happiness and con- 
tentment. To the gold chain of office which Moran wore on 
the judgment seat, the Irish for centuries subsequently at- 
tached supernatural powers. It was said that it would tighten 
around the neck of the judge if he was unjustly judging a 
cause. 

The dawn of Christianity found the Romans masters of 
nearly the whole of the known world, Britain, after a short 
struggle, succumbed, and eventually learned to love the yoke. 
Gaul, after a gallant effort, was also overpowered and held 
as a conquered province. But upon Irish soil the Roman 
eagles were never planted. Of Ireland, or lerne, as they called 
it, of its great wealth and amazing beauty of scenery and rich- 
ness of soil, the all-conquering Romans heard much. But they 
had heard also that the fruitful and beautiful island was peo- 
pled by a soldier race, and, judging them by the few who oc- 
casionally crossed to Alba to help their British neighbors, and 
whose prowess and skill the imperial legions had betimes to 



Ancient Ireland 



45 



prove, the conquest of lerne was wisely judged by the Rom- 
ans to be a work better not attempted. 

The early centuries of the Christian era may be consid- 
ered the period pre-eminently of Pagan bardic or legendary 
fame in Ireland. In this, which we call the ' ' Ossianic ' ' period, 
lived Cuhal or Cumhal, father of the celebrated Fin Mac Cum- 
hal, and commander of the great Irish legion called the Fiana 
Erion, or Irish militia. The Ossianic poems recount the most 
marvelous stories of Fin and the Fiana Erion which 
are compounds of undoubted facts and manifest fictions, the 
prowess of the heroes being in the course of time magnified 
into the supernatural, and the figures and poetic allegories of 
the earlier bards gradually coming to be read as realities. 
Some of these poems are gross, extravagant and absurd. Oth- 
ers of them are of rare beauty, and are, moreover, valuable 
for the insight they give, though obliquely, into the manners 
and customs, thoughts, feelings, guiding principles, and mov- 
ing passions of the ancient Irish. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER IV. 

KING CORMAC THE FIRST— NIAL, OP THE NINE HOSTAGES. 

As early as tlie reign of Ardi-Ri Cormac the First— the 
first years of the third century— the Christian faith had pene- 
trated into Ireland. Probably in the commercial intercourse 
between the Irish and continental ports, some Christian con- 
verts had been amongst the Irish navigators or merchants. 
Some historians think the monarch himself, Cormac, towards 
the end of his life, adored the true God, and attempted to put 
down druidism. "His reign," says Mr. Haverty, the his- 
torian, ''is generally looked upon as the brightest epoch in 
the entire history of pagan Ireland. He established three col- 
leges; one for War, one for History, and one for Jurispru- 
dence. He collected and remodeled the laws, and published 
the code which remained in force until the English invasion (a 
period extending beyond nine hundred years), and outside the 
English Pale for many centuries after. He assembled the 
bards and chroniclers at Tara, and directed them to collect 
the annals of Ireland and to write out the records of the 
country from year to year, making them synchronize with the 
history of other countries, by collating events with the reigns 
of contemporary foreign potentates ; Cormac himself having 
been the inventor of this chronology. These annals formed 
what is called the "Psalter of Tara," which also contained 
full details of the boundaries of provinces, districts, and small 
divisions of land throughout Ireland; but unfortunately this 
great record has been lost, no vestige of it being now, it is 
believed, in existence. The magnificence of Cormac 's palace 
at Tara was commensurate with the greatness of his power 
and the brilliancy of his actions; and he fitted out a fleet 
which he sent to harass the shores of Alba, or Scotland, until 
that country also was compelled to acknowledge him as sover- 
eign. He wrote a book or tract called Teaguscna-Ri, or the 
"Institutions of a Prince," which is still in existence, and 
which contains admirable maxims on manners, morals and 
government. This illustrious sovereign died A. D. 266, at 
Cleitach, on the Boyne, a salmon bone, it is said, having fas- 
tened in his throat while dining, and defied all efiiorts of ex- 
trication. He was buried at Ross-na-ri, the first of the pagan 

47 



48 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

monarchs who was not interred at Brugh, the famous bnrial 
place of the pre-Christian kings. 

In the two centuries succeeding, there flourished amongst 
other sovereigns of Ireland less known to fame, the celebrated 
Niall of the Nine Hostages, and King Dahi. During these 
two hundred years the flag of Ireland waved through conti- 
nental Europe over victorious legions and fleets; the Irish 
monarchs leading powerful armies across the plains of Gaul, 
and up to the very confines of ''the Caesar's domains" in 
Italy. It was the day of Ireland's military power in Europe; 
a day which subsequently waned so disastrously, and, later 
on, set in utter gloom. Neighboring Britain, whose yoke a 
thousand years subsequently Ireland was to wear, then lay 
helpless and abject at the mercy of the Irish hosts; the Brit- 
ons, as history relates, absolutely weeping and wailing at the 
departure of the enslaving Eoman legions, because now there 
would be naught to stay the visits of the Scoti, or Irish, and 
the Picts. The courts of the Irish princes and homes of the 
Irish nobility were filled with white slave attendants, brought 
from abroad, some from Gaul, but most from Anglia. It was 
in this way the youthful Patricius, or Patrick, was brought a 
slave into Ireland from Gaul. As the power of Imperial Eome 
began to pale, and outlying legions were being every year 
drawn in nearer and nearer to the city itself, the Irish sun- 
burst blazed over the scene, and the retreating Romans found 
the cohorts of Erinn pushing dauntlessly and vengefully on 
their track. 

Although the Irish chroniclers of the period themselves 
say little of the deeds of the armies abroad, the continental 
records of the time give us pretty full insight into the part 
they played on the European stage in that day. Niall of the 
Nine Hostages met his death in Gaul, on the banks of the 
Loire, while leading his armies in one of those campaigns. 

Of these foreign expeditions Ireland was destined to be 
indebted for her own conquest by the spirit of Christianity. 




ST. PATRICK GOING TO TARA. 



CHAPTER V. 

ST. PATRICK IN IRELAND. 

As we have already mentioned, in one of the military 
excursions of King Niali the First, into Gaul, he captured and 
brought to Ireland amongst other white slaves, Patricius, a 
Roman-Gallic youth of good family, and his sisters, Darerca 
and Lupita. The story of St. Patrick's bondage in Ireland, of 
his miraculous escape, his entry into holy orders, his vision 
of Ireland— in which he thought he heard the cries of a multi- 
tude of people, entreating him to come to them in Erinn— his 
long studies under St. Germain, and eventually his determina- 
tion to undertake in an especial manner the conversion of the 
Irish, will all be found in any Irish Church History or Life of 
St. Patrick. Having received the sanction and benediction of 
the holy pontiff. Pope Celestine, and having been consecrated 
bishop, St. Patrick, accompanied by a few chosen priests, 
reached Ireland in 432. Christianity had been preached in 
Ireland long before St. Patrick's time. In 431 St. Palladius, 
Archdeacon of Rome, was sent by Pope Celestine as a bishop 
to the Christians in Ireland. These, however, were evidently 
but few in number, and worshipped only in fear or secrecy. 
The attempt to preach the faith openly to the people was vio- 
lently suppressed, and St. Palladius sailed from Ireland. St. 
Patrick and his missioners landed on the spot where now 
stands the fashionable watering place called Bray, near Dub- 
lin. The hostility of the Lagenian prince and people com- 
pelled him to re-embark. He sailed northwards, touching at 
Innis-Patrick, near Skerries, county Dublin, and eventually 
landed at Magh Innis, in Strangford Lough. 

Druidism would appear to have been the form of pagan- 
ism then prevailing in Ireland, though even then some traces 
remained of a still more ancient idol-worship, probably dating 
from the time of the Tuatha de Danaans, two thousand years 
before. St. Patrick, however, found the Irish mind much bet- 
ter prepared, by its comparative civilization and refinement, 
to receive the truths of Christianity, than that of any other 
nation in Europe outside Imperial Rome. The Irish were 
always— then as they are now— pre-eminently a reverential 
people, and thus were peculiarly susceptible of religious truth. 

49 



50 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Koseb 

St. Patrick's progress through the island was marked by suc- 
cess from the outset. Tradition states that, expounding the 
doctrine of the Holy Trinity, he used a little sprig of trefoil, 
or three-leaved grass, whence the Shamrock comes to be the 
National Emblem, as St. Patrick is the National Saint, or 
Patron of Ireland. 

Ard-Ri Laori was holding a druidical feast in Tara, at 
which the kindling of a great fire formed a chief feature of 
the proceedings, and it was a crime punishable with death 
for any one to light a fire in the surrounding country on the 
evening of that festival, until the sacred flame on Tara Hill 
blazed forth. To his amazement, however, the monarch be- 
held on the Hill of Slane, visible from Tara, a bright light 
kindling early in the evening. This was the Paschal fire which 
St. Patrick and his missioners had lighted, for it was Holy 
Saturday. The king sent for the chief druid, and pointed out 
to him on the distant horizon the flickering beam that so 
audaciously violated the sacred laws. The archpriest gazed 
long and wistfully on the spot, and eventually answered, ' * 0, 
king, there is indeed a flame lighted on yonder hill, which, if 
it be not put out to-night, will never be quenched in Erinn.'* 
Much disquieted by this oracular answer, Laori directed that 
the offenders, whoever they might be, should be instantly 
brought before him for punishment. St. Patrick, on being 
arrested, arrayed himself in his vestments, and, crozier in 
hand, marched boldly at the head of his captors, reciting aloud 
as he went along, a litany which is still extant, in which he 
invoked, *'on that momentous day for Erinn," the Holy Trin- 
ity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, ever Blessed 
Mary the Mother of God, and the saints around the throne 
of heaven. Having arrived before the king and his assembled 
courtiers and druidical high priests, St. Patrick, undismayed, 
proclaimed to them that he had come to quench the fires of 
pagan sacrifice in Ireland, and light the flame of Christian 
faith. The king listened amazed and angered, yet no penalty 
fell on Patrick. On the contrary, he made several converts 
on the spot, and the sermon and controversy in the king's 
presence proved an auspicious beginning for the glorious mis- 
sion upon which he had just entered. 

It would fill a volume to chronicle the progress of the 
Saint through the island. Before his death, though only a few 
of the reigning princes had embraced the faith (for many 
years subsequently pagan kings ruled the country), the good 



Ancient Ireland 51 

seeds had been sown far and wide, and were thriving apace, 
and the cross had been raised throughout Ireland, ''from the 
centre to the sea." Ours was the only country in Europe, it 
is said, bloodlessly converted to the faith. Strictly speaking, 
only one martyr suffered death for the evangelization of Ire- 
land, and death in this instance had been devised for the Saint 
himself. While St. Patrick was returning from Munster a 
pagan chieftain formed a desire to murder him. The plan 
came to the knowledge of Odran, the faithful charioteer of 
Patrick, who, saying nought of it to him, managed to change 
seats with the Saint, and thus received himself the fatal blow 
intended for his master. 

Another authentic anecdote may be mentioned here. At 
the baptism of Aengus, King of Mononia or Munster, St. Pat- 
rick accidentally pierced through the sandal-covered foot of 
the king with his pastoral staff, which terminated into an iron 
spike, and which it was the Saint's custom to strike into the 
ground by his side, supporting himself more or less thereby, 
while preaching or baptizing. The king bore the wound with- 
out wincing, until the ceremony was over, when St. Patrick, 
with surprise and pain, beheld the ground covered with blood, 
and observed the cause. Being questioned by the Saint as to 
why he did not cry out, Aengus replied that he thought it was 
part of the ceremony, to represent, though faintly, the wounds 
our Lord had borne for man's redemption. 

In the year of our Lord 493, on the 17th of March— which 
day is celebrated as his feast by the Catholic Church and by 
the Irish nation at home and in exile— St. Patrick departed 
this life in his favorite retreat of Saul, in the county of Down, 
where his body was interred. ''His obsequies," say the old 
annalists, "continued for twelve days, during which the light 
of innumerable tapers seemed to turn night into day; and 
the bishops and priests of Ireland congregated on the occa- 
sion. ' ' 

Several of the Saint's compositions, chiefly prayers and 
litanies, are extant. They breathe the most fervent devotion 
to the Virgin Mother of Grod, are full of the most powerful 
invocations of the saints, and in all other particulars are ex- 
actly such prayers and express such doctrines as are taught 
in our own day in the unchanged and unchangeable Catholic 
Church. 



CHAPTER VI. 

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRY — THE NA- 
TIONAL MILITIA— THE BREHON LAWS. 

The geographical subdivisions of the country varied in 
successive centuries. The chief subdivision, the designations 
of which are most frequently used by the ancient chroniclers, 
was aiiected by a line drawn from the hill or ridge on the 
south bank of the Liffey, on the eastern end of which the 
Castle of Dublin is built, running due west to the peninsula 
of Marey, at the head of Galway Bay. The portion of Ireland 
south of this line was called Leah Moha ("Moh Nua's half") ; 
the portion to the north of it, Leah Cuinn (''Conn's half"). 
As these names suggest, this division of the island was first 
made between two princes. Conn of the Hundred Battles, and 
Moh Nua, or Eoghan Mor, otherwise Eugene the Great, the 
former being the head or chief representative of the Milesian 
families descended from Ir, the latter of those descended from 
Heber. Though the primary object of this partition was 
achieved but for a short time, the names thus given to the two 
territories are found in use, to designate the northern and 
southern halves of Ireland, for a thousand years subsequently. 

Within these there were smaller subdivisions. The an- 
cient names of the four provinces into which Ireland is divided 
were, Mononia (Munster), Dalaradia, or Ulidia (Ulster), La- 
genia (Leinster), and Conacia, or Conact (Connaught). 
Again, Mononia was subdivided into Thomond and Desmond, 
i. e., north and south Munster. Besides these names, the ter- 
ritory or district possessed by every set or clan had a desig- 
nation of its own. 

The chief palaces of the Irish kings, whose splendors are 
celebrated in Irish history, were: the palace of Emania, in 
Ulster, founded or built by Macha, queen of Cinbaeth the First 
(pronounced Kimbahe), about the year B. C. 700; Tara in 
Meath ; Cruachan, in Conact, built by Queen Maeve, the beau- 
tiful albeit Amazonian Queen of the West, about the year 
B. C. 100 ; Aileach, in Donegal, built on the site of an ancient 
Sun-temple, or Tuatha de Danaan fort-palace. 

Kincora had not at this time an existence, nor had it for 
some centuries subsequently. It was never more than the 

53 



54 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

local residence, a palatial castle, of Brian Boruma. It stood 
on the spot where now stands the town of Killaloe. 

Emania, next to Tara the most celebrated of all royal pal- 
aces of Ancient Erinn, stood on the spot now marked by a 
large rath called the Navan Fort, two miles to the west of 
Armagh. It was the residence of the Ulster kings for a period 
of 855 years. 

The mound or Grianan of Aileach, upon which, even for 
hundreds of years after the destruction of the place, the 0'- 
Donnells were elected, installed, or "inaugurated," is still 
an object of wonder and curiosity. It stands on the crown 
of a low hill by the shores of Lough Swilly, about five miles 
from Londonderry. 

Royal Tara has been crowned with an imperishable fame 
in song and story. The entire crest and slopes of Tara Hill 
were covered with buildings at one time; for it was alone a 
royal palace, the residence of the Ardi-Ri (or High King) of 
Erinn, but, moreover, the legislative chambers, the military 
buildings, the law courts and royal universities that stood 
thereupon. Of all these, naught now remains but the moated 
mounds or raths that mark where stood the halls within 
which bard and warrior, ruler and lawgiver, once assembled 
in glorious pageant. 

Of the orders of knighthood, or companionship of valor 
and chivalry, mentioned in pagan Irish history, the two prin- 
cipal were: the Knights of the (Craev Rua, or) Red Branch 
of Emania, and the CI anna Morna, or the Damnonian Knights 
of lorras. The former were a Dalaradian, the latter a Cona- 
cian body; and, test the records how we may, it is incontro- 
vertible that no chivalric institutions of modern times eclipsed 
in knightly valor and romantic daring those warrior compan- 
ionships of ancient Erinn. 

Besides these orders of knighthood, several military le- 
gions figure familiarly and prominently in Irish history; but 
the most celebrated of them all, the Dalcassians— one of the 
most brave and ''glory-crowned" bodies of which there is 
record in ancient and modern times— did not figure in Irish 
history until long after the commencement of the Christian 
era. 

The Fianna Eirion, or National Militia of Erinn, we have 
already mentioned. This celebrated enrollment had the ad- 
vantage of claiming within its own ranks a warrior-poet, Os- 
sian (son of the commander Fin), whose poems, taking for 



Ancient Ireland 55 

their theme invariably the achievements and adventures of 
the Fenian host, or of its chiefs, have given to it a lasting 
fame. According to Ossian, there never existed upon the 
earth another such force of heroes as the Fianna Eirion; and 
the feats he attributes to them were of course unparalleled. 
He would have us believe there were no taller, straighter, 
stronger, braver, bolder, men in all Brinn, than his Fenian 
comrades ; and with the recital of their deeds he mixes up the 
wildest romance and fable. What is strictly true of them is, 
that at one period undoubtedly they were a splendid national 
force ; but ultimately they became a danger rather than a pro- 
tection to the kingdom, and had to be put down by the regular 
army in the reign of King Carbri the Second, who encountered 
and destroyed them finally on the bloody battle field of Gavra, 
about the year A. D. 280. 

Ben Eder, now called the Hill of Howth, near Dublin, was 
the camp or exercise ground of the Fianna Eirion when called 
out annually for training. 

The laws of pagan Ireland, which were collected and codi- 
fied in the reign of Cormac the First, and which prevailed 
throughout the kingdom as long subsequently as a vestige of 
native Irish regal authority remained— a space of nearly fif- 
teen hundred years— are, even in this present age, exciting 
considerable attention amongst legislators and savants. A 
royal commission— the ''Brehon Laws Commission"— ap- 
pointed by the British government in the year 1856 (chiefly 
owing to the energetic exertions of Rev. Dr. Graves and Rev. 
Dr. Todd, of Trinity College, Dublin), has been laboring at 
their translation, parliament voting an annual sum to defray 
the expenses. Of course only portions of the original manu- 
scripts are now in existence, but even these portions attest 
the marvellous wisdom and the profound justness of the an- 
cient Milesian Code, and give us a high opinion of Irish juris- 
prudence two thousand years ago. 

The Brehon Laws Commission published their first vol- 
ume, the ''Seanchus Mor," in 1865, and a most interesting 
publication it is. Immediately on the establishment of Chris- 
tianity in Ireland a royal commission of that day was appoint- 
ed to revise the statute laws of Erinn, so that they might be 
purged of everything applicable only to a pagan nation and 
inconsistent with the pure doctrines of Christianity. On this 
commission, we are told, there were appointed by the Irish 
monarch three chief Brehons or judges, three Christian bish- 



56 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ops, and three territorial chiefs or viceroys. The result of 
their labors was presented to the Irish parliament at Tara, 
and being duly confirmed, the code thenceforth became known 
as the Seanchus Mor. 

From the earliest age the Irish appear to have been ex- 
tremely fond of games, athletic sports, and displays of prow- 
ess or agility. Amongst the royal and noble families chess 
was the chief domestic game. There are indubitable proofs 
that it was played amongst the princes of Erinn two thousand 
years ago; and the oldest bardic chants or verse-histories 
mention the gold and jewel inlaid chess boards of the kings. 

Of the passionate attachment of the Irish to music, little 
need be said, as this is one of the national characteristics 
which has been at all times most strongly marked, and is now 
most widely appreciated; the harp being universally embla- 
zoned as a national emblem of Ireland. Even in the pre- 
Christian period we are here reviewing, music was an "in- 
stitution" and a power in Erinn. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE GLORIOUS MUSTER ROLL OF IRISH SAINTS — COMING OF THE 

DANES. 

The five hundred years, one-half of which preceded the 
birth of our Lord, may be considered the period of Ireland's 
greatest power and military glory as a nation. The five hun- 
dred years which succeeded St. Patrick's mission may be re- 
garded as the period of Ireland's Christian and scholastic 
fame. In the former she sent her warriors, in the latter her 
missionaries, all over Europe. Where her fierce hero-kings 
carried the sword, her saints now bore the cross of faith. It 
was in this latter period, between the sixth and the eighth 
centuries particularly, that Ireland became known all over 
Europe as the "Island of Saints and Scholars." . 

Churches, cathedrals, monasteries, convents, universities 
covered the island. From even the most distant parts of Eu- 
rope, kings and their subjects came to study in the Irish 
schools. King Alfred the Great of England was educated in 
one of the Irish universities. A glorious roll of Irish saints 
and scholars belong to this period : St. Columba or Columcille, 
St. Columbanus, St. Gall, who evangelized Helvetia, St. Pri- 
gidian, who was bishop of Lucca in Italy, St. Lucinius, who 
was martyred in Flanders, St. Argobast, who became bishop 
of Strasburg, St. Killian, the apostle of Franconia, and quite 
a host of illustrious Irish missionaries, who carried the bless- 
ings of faith and education all over Europe. The record of 
their myriad adventurous enterprises, their glorious labors, 
their evangelising conquests, cannot be traced within the 
scope of this book. 

The first dark cloud came from Scandinavia. Towards the 
close of the eighth century the Danes made their appearance 
in Ireland. They came at first as transitory coast marauders, 
landing and sacking a neighboring town, church or monastery.. 
For this species of warfare the Irish seem to have been as 
little prepared as any of the European countries subjected to 
the like courage ; that is to say, none of them but the Danes 
possessed at this period of history a powerful fleet. So when 
pirates had wreaked their will upon the city or monastery, in 
order to plunder which they had landed, they simply re-im- 

57 



58 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

barked and sailed away comparatively safe from molestation. 

At length it seems to have occurred to the professional pi- 
rates that in place of making periodical dashes on the Irish 
coast, they might secure a permanent footing thereupon, and 
so prepare the way for eventually subjugating the entire king- 
dom. Accordingly they came in force and possessed them- 
selves of several spots favorably placed for such purpose as 
theirs— sites for fortified maritime cities on estuaries afford- 
ing good shelter for their fleets, viz., Dublin, Drogheda, Water- 
ford, Limerick, Wexford, etc. 

In the fourth year of Nial the Third (about the year A. D. 
840), there arrived a monster fleet of these fierce and ruthless 
savages, under the command of Turgesius. They poured into 
the country and carried all before them. For nearly seven 
years Turgesius exercised over a considerable district kingly 
authority, and the Irish groaned under the horrors of op- 
pression the most heartless and brutal. Turgesius converted 
the cathedral at Clonmacnoise into a palace for his own use, 
and from the high altar, used as a throne, the idolater gave 
forth his tyrannical commands. Meantime the Christian faith 
was proscribed, the Christian shrines were plundered, the 
gold and jewels were kept by the spoilers, but the holy relics 
were sacrilegiously given to destruction. The schools were 
dispersed, the books and chronicles burned, and finally the 
*' successor of Patrick," the Archbishop of Armagh, was 
seized, the cathedral sacked, and the holy prelate brought a 
captive into the Danish stronghold. 

But a day of retribution was at hand. The divided and dis- 
organized tribes were being bitterly taught the necessity of 
union. These latest outrages were too much for Christian 
Irish flesh and blood to bear. Concerting their measures, the 
people simultaneously rose on the oppressors. Turgesius was 
seized and put to death by Malachy, prince of Westmeath, 
while the Irish Ard-Ei, Nial the Third, at length able to rally 
a powerful army against the invaders, swooped down upon 
them from the north, and drove them panic-stricken to their 
maritime fortresses, their track marked with slaughter. Nial 
seems to have been a really noble character, and the circum- 
stances under which he met his death, sudden and calamitous, 
in the very midst of his victorious career, afford ample illus- 
tration of the fact. His army had halted on the banks of the 
Callan river, at the moment swollen by heavy rains. One of 
the royal domestics or attendants, a common Giolla. in en- 



Ancient Ireland 59 

deavoring to ford the river for some purpose, was swept from 
his feet and carried off by the flood. The monarch, who hap- 
pened to be looking on, cried aloud to his guards to succor the 
drowning man, but quicker than any other, he himself plunged 
into the torrent. He never rose again. The brave Nial, who 
had a hundred times faced death in the midst of reddened 
spears, perished in his effort to save the life of one of the 
humblest of his followers. 

The power of the Danes was broken, but they still clung 
to the seaports, where either they were able to defy efforts at 
expulsion, or else obtained permission to remain by paying 
heavy tribute to the Irish sovereign. It is clear enough that 
the presence of the Danes came, in course of time, to be re- 
garded as useful and profitable by the Irish, so long as they 
did not refuse tribute to the native power. The history of the 
succeeding centuries accordingly— the period of the Danish 
struggle— exhibits a singular spectacle. The Danes made 
themselves fully at home in the great maritime cities, which 
they may be said to have founded, and which their commerce 
certainly raised to importance. The Irish princes made al- 
liances betimes with them, and Danes frequently fought on 
opposite sides in the internecine conflicts of the Irish princes. 
Occasionally seizing a favorable opportunity— (when the 
Irish were particularly weakened by internal feud, and when 
a powerful reinforcement for themselves arrived from Scan- 
dinavia) —they would make a fierce endeavor to extend their 
dominion on Irish soil. These efforts were mostly successful 
for a time, owing to the absence of a strong centralized au- 
thority amongst the Irish; but eventually the Irish, by put- 
ting forth their native valor, and even partially combining for 
the time, were always able to crush them. 

Yet it is evident that during the three hundred years over 
which the Danish struggle spreads, the Irish nation was un- 
dergoing disintegration and demoralization. Towards the 
middle of the period, the Danes became converted to Chris- 
tianity; but their coarse and fierce barbarism remained long 
after, and it is evident that contact with such elements, and 
increasing political disruption among themselves, had a fatal 
effect on the Irish. They absolutely retrograded in learning 
and civilization during this time, and contracted some of the 
worst vices that could pave the way for the fate that a few 
centuries more were to bring upon them. 

National pride may vainly seek to ignore or hide the great 



60 Ireland's Ckown of Thorns and Roses 

truth here displayed. During the three hundred years which 
preceded the Anglo-Norman invasion, the Irish princes ap- 
peared to be given over to a madness for destruction. At a 
time when consolidation of national authority was becoming 
the rule all over Europe, and was becoming so necessary for 
them, they were going into the other extreme. As the general 
rule, each one sought only his personal or family ambition or 
aggrandisement, and strove for it lawlessly and violently. 
Frequently when the Ardi-Ri of Erinn was nobly grappling 
with the Danish foe, and was on the point of finally expelling 
the foreigner, a subordinate prince would seize what seemed 
to him the golden opportunity for throwing off the authority 
of the chief king, or for treacherously endeavoring to grasp 
it himself. During the whole time— three centuries— there 
was scarcely a single reign in which the Ardi-Ri did not find 
occupation for his arms as constantly in compelling the sub- 
mission of the subordinate princes, as in combating the Danish 
foe. 

Religion itself suffered in this national declension. In 
these centuries we find professedly Christian Irish kings them- 
selves as ruthless destroyers of churches and schools as the 
pagan Danes of a few years previous. The titles of the Irish 
episcopacy were sometimes seized by lay princes for the sake 
of the revenues attached to them; the spiritual functions of 
the officers, however, being performed by ecclesiastics mean- 
while. In fine, the Irish national character in those centuries 
is to be censured, not admired. It would seem as if by adding 
sacrilege and war upon religion and on learning to political 
suicide and a fatal frenzy of factiousness, the Irish princes of 
that period were doing their best and their worst to shame the 
glories of their nation in the preceding thousand years, and 
to draw down upon the country the terrible chastisement that 
eventually befell it, a chastisement that never could have be- 
fallen it, but for the state of things we are here pointing out. 

Yet was this gloomy period lit up by some brilliant flashes 
of glory, the brightest, if not the last, being that which sur- 
rounds the name of Clontarf, where the power of the Danes in 
Ireland was crushed totally and forever. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EEIGN OF THE CELEBRATED KING, BRIAN BORU. 

Few historical names are more widely known amongst 
Irishmen than that of Brian the First— ''Brian of the 
Tribute"— and the story of his life is a necessary and an 
interesting introduction to an account of the battle of Clon- 
tarf. 

About the middle of the tenth century the crown of 
Munster was worn by Mahon, son of Ceineidi (pr. Kennedy), 
a prince of the Dalcassian family. Mahon had a young 
brother, Brian, and by all testimony the affection which 
existed between the brothers was something touching. Mahon, 
who was a noble character— ''as a prince and captain in every 
way worthy of his inheritance"— was accompanied in all expe- 
ditions, and from an early age by Brian, to whom he acted 
not only as a brother and prince, but as military preceptor. 
After a brilliant career, Mahon fell by a deed of deadly treach- 
ery. A rival prince of South Munster— "Molloy, son of 
Bran, Lord of Desmond"— whom he had vanquished, pro- 
posed to meet him in friendly conference at the house of Don- 
ovan, a Eugenian chief. The safety of each person was guar- 
anteed by the Bishop of Cork, who acted as mediator between 
them. Mahon, chivalrous and unsuspecting, went unattended 
L and unarmed to the conference. He was seized by an armed 
band of Donovan's men, who handed him over to a party of 
Molloy 's retainers, by whom he was put to death. He had 
with him, as the sacred and (as it ought to have been) in- 
violable ' ' safe-conduct ' ' on the faith of which he had trusted 
himself into the power of his foes, a copy of the Gospels writ- 
ten by the hand of St. Barre. As the assassins drew their 
swords upon him, Mahon snatched up the sacred scroll, and 
held it on his breast, as if he could not credit that a mur- 
derous hand would dare to wound him through such a shield. 
But the murderers plunged their swords into his breast, pierc- 
ing right through the vellum, which became all stained and 
matted with blood. Two priests had, horror-stricken, wit- 
nessed the outrage. They caught up the blood-stained Grospels 
and fled to the bishop, spreading through the country as they 
went the dreadful news which they bore. The venerable suc- 

61 



62 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

cesser of St. Fin Bar, we are told, wept bitterly and uttered 
a prophecy concerning the fate of the murderers, which was 
soon and remarkably fulfilled. 

''When the news of his noble-hearted brother's death was 
brought to Brian at Kincora, he was seized with the most 
violent grief. His favorite harp was taken down, and he sang 
the death-song of Mahon, recounting all the glorious actions 
of his life. His anger flashed out through his tears as he 
wildly chanted— 

''My heart shall burst within my breast, 
Unless I avenge this great king, 
They shall forfeit life for this foul deed. 
Or I must perish by a violent death." 

"But the climax of his grief was, that Mahon had not fallen 
behind the shelter of his shield, rather than trust the treach- 
erous word of Donovan." A "Bard of Thomond," in our 
own day— one not unworthy of his proud pseudonym— Mr. M. 
Hogan of Limerick, has supplied the following very beautiful 
version of "Brian's Lament for King Mahon":— 

Lament, O Dalcassians, the Eagle of Cashel is dead. 
The grandeur, the glory, and joy of her palace is fled; 
Your strength in the battle— your bulwark of valor is low. 
But the fire of your vengeance will fall on the murderous foe ; 

His country was mighty— his people were blest in his reign, 
But the ray of his glory shall never shine on them again ; 
Like the beauty of summer his presence gave joy to our souls. 
When Bards sung his deeds at the banquet of bright golden 
bowls. 



Ye maids of Temora, whose rich garments sweep the green 

plain ; 
Ye chiefs of the Sunburst, the terror and scourge of the Dane ; 
Ye gray-haired Ard-Fileas, whose songs fire the blood of the 

brave ; 
Oh : weep, for your Sun-Star is quenched in the night of the 

grave. 



Ancient Ireland 63 

He clad you with honors— he filled your high hearts with 

delight, 
In the midst of your councils he beamed in his wisdom and 

might ; 
Gold, silver, and jewels were only as dust in his hand, 
But his sword like a lightning-flash blasted the foe of his land. 

Oh: Mahon, my brother; we've conquered and marched side 

by side, 
And thou wert to the love of my soul like a beautiful bride; 
In the battle, the banquet, the council, the chase and the throne, 
Our beings were blended— our spirits were filled with one tone. 

Oh : Mahon, my brother ; thou'st died like the hind of the wood, 
The hands of assassins were red with thy pure, noble blood ; 
And I was not near, my beloved, when thou wert o'erpower'd, 
To steep in their hearts' blood the steel of my blue-beaming 
sword. 

I stood by the dark, misty river at eve dim and gray. 
And I heard the death-cry of the spirit of gloomy Craghlea ; 
She repeated thy name in her caoine of desolate woe, 
Then I knew that the Beauty and Joy of Clan Tail was laid 
low. 

All day and all night one dark vigil of sorrow I keep, 

My spirit is bleeding with wounds that are many and deep ; 

My banquet is anguish, tears, groaning, and wringing of 

hands. 
In madness lamenting my Prince of the gold-hilted brands. 

God : give me patience to bear the affliction I feel. 

But for every hot tear a red blood-drop shall blush on my 

steel ; 
For every deep pang which my grief- stricken spirit has known, 
A thousand death-wounds in the day of revenge shall atone. 

And he smote the murderers of his brother with a swift and 
terrible vengeance. Mustering his Dalcassian legions, which 
so often with Mahon he had led to victory, he set forth upon 
the task of retribution. His first effort, the old records tell 
us, was directed against the Danes of Limerick, who were 
Donovan's allies, and he slew Ivor, their king, and his two 



64 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

sons. Foreseeing their fate, they had fled before him, and 
had taken refnge in ''Scattery's Holy Isle." But Brian slew 
them even ' ^ between the horns of the altar. ' ' Next came the 
turn of Donovan, who had meantime hastily gathered to his 
aid the Danes of South Munster. But ''Brian," say the 
Annaals of Innis fallen, ''gave them battle, and Auliffe and 
his Danes, and Donovan and his allies were all cut off." Of 
all guilty in the murder of the brother whom he so loved, there 
now remained but one— the principal— Molloy, son of Bran. 
After the fashion in those times, Brian sent Molloy a formal 
summons or citation to meet him in battle until the terrible 
issue between them should be settled. To this Molloy re- 
sponded by confederating all the Irish and the Danes of 
South Munster whom he could rally, for yet another encounter 
with the avenging Dalcassian. But the curse of the Comharba 
of St. Barre was upon the murderers of Mahon, and the might 
of a passionate vengeance was in Brian's arm. Again he was 
victorious. The confederated Danes and Irish were over- 
thrown with great slaughter; Brian's son, Morrogh, then a 
mere lad, "killing the murderer of his uncle Mahon with his 
own hand." "Molloy was buried on the north side of the 
mountain where Mahon had been murdered and interred: on 
Mahon the sun shone full and fair; but on the grave of his 
assassin the black shadow of the northern sky rested always. 
Such was the tradition which all Munster piously believed. 
After his victory Brian was universally acknowledged king 
of Munster, and until Ard-Ei Malaehy won the battle of Tara, 
was justly considered the first Irish captain of his age." 

This was the opening chapter of Brian's career. Thence- 
forth his military reputation and his political influence are 
found extending far beyond the confines of Munster. 

The supreme crown of Ireland at this time was worn by a 
brave and enlightened sovereign, Malaehy the Second, or 
Malaehy Mor. He exhibited rare qualities of statesmanship, 
patriotism, and valor in his vigorous efforts against the Danes. 
On the occasion of one of his most signal victories over them, 
he himself engaged in combat two Danish princes, overcame 
and slew both of them, taking from off the neck of one a 
massive collar of gold, and from the grasp of the other a 
jewel-hilted sword, which he himself thenceforward wore as 
trophies. To this monarch, and to the incident here men- 
tioned, Moore alludes in his well-known lines:— 



Ancient Ireland 55 

Let Erin remember the days of old, 
Ere her faithless sons betrayed her, 

When Malachy wore the collar of gold 
Which he won from the proud invader. 

Whether it was that Ard-Ei Malachy began to fear the in- 
creasing and almost overshadowing power and influence of 
his southern tributary, or that Brian had in his pride of 
strength refused to own his tributary position, it seems im- 
possible to tell; but unfortunately for Ireland the brave and 
wise Ard-Ri Malachy, and the not less brave and wise tribu- 
tary Brian, became embroiled in a bitter war, the remote but 
indubitable consequences of which most powerfully and calam- 
itously affected the future destinies of Ireland. For nearly 
twenty years the struggle between them continued. Any 
adversary less able than Malachy would have been quickly 
compelled to succumb to ability such as Brian's; and it may 
on the other hand be said that it was only a man of Brian's 
marvellous powers whom Malachy could not effectively crush 
in as many months. Two such men united could accomplish 
anything with Ireland; and when they eventually did unite, 
they absolutely swept the Danes into their walled and fortified 
cities, from whence they had begun once more to overrun the 
country during the distractions of the struggle between 
Malachy and Brian. During the short peace or truce between 
himself and the Ard-Ri, Brian— who was a sagacious diplo- 
matist as well as great general— seems to have attached to 
his interest nearly all the tributary kings, and subsequentlj^ 
even the Danish princes; so that it was easy to see that 
already his eye began to glance at the supreme crown. 
Malachy saw it all, and when the decisive moment at last 
arrived, and Brian, playing Caesar, ''crossed Jie Rubicon," 
the now only titular Ard-Ri made a gallant but brief defence 
against the ambitious usurper— for such Brian was on the 
occasion. After this short effort Malachy yielded with dig- 
nity and calmness to the inevitable, and gave up the monarchy 
of Erinn to Brian. The abdicated sovereign thenceforward 
served under his victorious rival as a subordinate, with a 
readiness and fidelity which showed him to be Brian's superior 
at least in unselfish patriotism and in readiness to sacrifice 
personal pride and personal rights to the public interests of 
his country. 

Brian, now no longer king of Munster, but Ard-Ri of 



Co Ireland'.^ Crown of Tiionxr^ and nor^LS 

Eriiirs, iCnnd Lis ambition fully crowned. TliG poYTcr and 
authority to which he had thus attained, he wielded with a 
wisdom, a sagacity, a firmness, and a success that made his 
reign as Ard-Ei, while it lasted, one of almost unsurpassed 
glory, prosperity, and happiness for Ireland. Yet the student 
of Irish history finds no fact more indelibly marked on his 
mind by the thoughtful study of the great page before him, 
than this, namely, that, glorious as was Brian's reign— brave, 
generous, noble, pious, learned, accomplished, politic, and 
wise, as is confessed on all hands to have been— his seizure 
of the supreme national crown was a calamity for Ireland. 
Or, rather, perhaps, it would be more correct and more just 
to say, that having reference not singly to his ambitious seiz- 
ure of the national crown, but also to the loss in one day of 
his own life and the lives of his next heirs (both son and 
grandson), the event resulted calamitously for Ireland. For 
'4t threw open the sovereignty to every great family as a 
prize to be won by policy or force, and no longer an inheri- 
tance to be determined by law and usage. The consequences 
were what might have been expected. After his death the 
O'Connors of the West competed with both O'Neills and 
O'Briens for supremacy, and a chronic civil war prepared 
the way for Strongbow and the Normans. 

*'The term, 'kings and opposition' is applied to nearly all 
who reigned between King Brian's time and that of Roderic 
O'Connor" (the Norman invasion), ''meaning thereby kings 
who were unable to secure general obedience to their admin- 
istration of affairs." 

Brian, however, in all probability, as the historian we 
have quoted pleads in his behalf, might have been moved by 
the great and statesmanlike scheme of consolidating and 
fusing Ireland into one kingdom; gradually repressing indi- 
viduality in the subordinate principalities, and laying the 
firm foundation of an enduring and compact monarchical 
state, of which his own posterity would be the sovereigns. 
"For Morrogh, his first-born, and for Morrogh's descendants 
he hoped to found an hereditary kingship after the type uni- 
versally copied throughout Christendom. He was not igno- 
rant of what Alfred had done for England, Harold for Nor- 
way, Charlemagne for France, and Otho for Germany." If 
any such design really inspired Brian's course, it was a 
grandly useful one, comprehensive, and truly national. Its 
realization was just wbat Ireland wanted at that period of her 



Ancient Ireland 



67 



history. But its existence in Brian's mind is a most fanciful 
theory. He was himself, while a tributary king, no wondrous 
friend or helper of centralised authority. He pushed from 
the throne a wise and worthy monarch. He grasped at the 
sceptre, not in a reign of anarchy, but in a period of com- 
parative order, authority, and tranquillity. 

Be that as it may, certain it is that Brian was *' every 
inch a king." Neither on the Irish throne, nor on that of 
any other kingdom, did sovereign ever sit more splendidly 
qualified to rule; and Ireland had not for some centuries 
known such a glorious and prosperous, peaceful and happy 
time as the five years preceding Brian's death. He caused 
his authority to be not only unquestioned, but obeyed and 
respected in every corner of the land. So justly were the 
laws administered in his name, and so loyally obeyed through- 
out the kingdom, that the bards relate a rather fanciful story 
of a young and exquisitely beautiful lady, making, without the 
slightest apprehension of violence or insult, and in perfect 
safety, a tour of the island on foot, alone and unprotected, 
though bearing about her the most costly jewels and orna- 
ments of gold. A national minstrel of our own times has 
celebrated this illustration of the tranquillity of Brian's reign 
in the well-known poem, ''Rich and rare were the gems she 
wore.*' 




Sculpture on Window. Cathedral Church, Glendalough; Beranger, 1779. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER IX. 

DAEK TIMES IN IRELAND. 

About this time the Danish power all over Europe had 
made considerable advances. In France it had fastened it- 
self upon Normandy, and in England it had once more becMne 
victorious, the Danish prince, Sweyne, having been proclaimed 
king of England in 1013, though it was not until the tune of 
his successor, Canute, that the Danish line were undisputed 
monarchs of England. All these triumphs made them turn 
their attention the more earnestly to Ireland, which they so 
often and so desperately, yet so vainly, sought to win. At 
length the Danes of this country— holding several of the large 
sea-port cities, but yielding tribute to the Irish monarch- 
seem to have been roused to the design of rallying all the 
might of the Scanian race for one gigantic and supreme effort 
to conquer the kingdom; for it was a reflection hard for 
Northmen to endure, that they who had conquered England 
almost as often as they tried, who had now placed a Danish 
sovereign on the English throne, and had established a 
Danish dukedom of Normandy in France, had never yet been 
able to bring this dearly-coveted western isle into subjection, 
and had never yet given a monarch to its line of kings. Coin- 
cidently with the victories of Sweyne in England, several 
Danish expeditions appeared upon the Irish coast: now at 
Cork in the south, now at Lough Foyle in the north ; but these 
were promptly met and repelled by the vigor of the Ard-Ri, 
or of the local princes. These forays, however, though serious 
and dangerous enough, were but the prelude to the forth- 
coming grand assault, or as it has been aptly styled, ''the 
last field-day of Christianity and Paganism on Irish soil. ' * 

*'A taunt thrown out over a game of chess at Kincora 
is said to have hastened this memorable day. Maelmurra, 
prince of Leinster, playing or advising on the game, made or 
recommended a false move, upon which Morrogh, son of 
Brian, observed, it was no wonder the Danes (to whom he 
owed his elevation) were beaten at Glenmana, if he gave 
them advice like that. Maelmurra, highly incensed by the 
allusion— all the more severe for its bitter truth— arose, 
ordered his horse, and rode away in haste. Brian, when he 

69 



70 Ireland's Ceown of Thorns and Roses 

heard it, despatched a messenger after the indignant guest, 
begging hun to return ; but Maelmurra was not to be pacified, 
and refused. We next hear X)f him as concerting with certain 
Danish agents, always open to such negotiations, those meas- 
ures which led to the great invasion of the year 1014, in which 
the whole Scanian race, from Anglesea and Man, north to 
Norway, bore an active share. 

These agents passing over to England and Man, among 
the Scottish isles, and even to the Baltic, followed up the de- 
sign of an invasion on the gigantic scale. Suibne, earl of 
Man, entered warmly into this conspiracy, and sent the 'war- 
arrow' through all those 'out-islands' which obeyed him 
as lord. A yet more formidable potentate, Sigurd, of the 
Orkneys, next joined the league. He was the fourteenth earl 
of Orkney, of Norse origin, and his power was, at this period, 
a balance to that of his nearest neighbor, the king of Scots. 
He had ruled since the year 966, not only over the Orkneys, 
Shetland, and Northern Hebrides, but the coasts of Caithness 
and Sutherland, and even Ross and Moray rendered him 
homage and tribute. Eight years before the battle of Glontarf , 
Malcolm the Second of Scotland had been fain to purchase 
his alliance by giving him his daughter in marriage, and the 
kings of Denmark and Norway treated with him on equal 
terms. 

The hundred inhabited isles, which lie between Yell and 
Man— isles which after their conversion contained 'three 
hundred churches and chapels '—sent in their contingents, to 
swell the following of the renowned earl Sigurd. As his fleet 
bore southward from Kirkwall it swept the subject coast of 
Scotland, and gathered from every lough its galleys and its 
fighting men. The rendezvous was the Isle of Man, where 
Suibne had placed his own forces, under the command of 
Brodar, or Broderick, a famous leader against the Britons of 
Wales and Cornwall. In conjunction with Sigurd, the Manx- 
men sailed over to Ireland, where they were joined, in the 
Liffey, by Earl Canuteson, prince of Denmark, at the head of 
fourteen hundred champions clad in armor. Sitric of Dublin 
stood, or affected to stand, neutral in these preparations, but 
Maelmurra of Leinster had mustered all the forces he could 
command for such an expedition." (McGee.) 

Here was a mighty thunderstorm gathering over and 
around Ireland. Never before was an effort of such magni- 
tude made for the conquest of the island. Never before had 
the Danish power so palpably put forth its utmost strength. 



Ancient Ireland 71 

and never hitherto had it put forth such strength in vain. 
This was the supreme moment for Ireland to show what she 
could do when united in self-defense against a foreign in- 
vader. Here were the unconquered Northmen, the scourge 
and terror of Europe, the conquerors of Britain, Normandy, 
'Anglesea, Orkney, and Man, now concentrating the might of 
their whole race, from fiord to haven, from the Orkneys to 
the Sicily Isles, to burst in an overwhelming billow upon 
Ireland. If before a far less formidable assault England 
went down, dare Ireland hope now to meet and withstand this 
tremendous shock? In truth, it seemed a hard chance. It 
was a trial-hour for the men of Erirm. And gloriously did 
they meet it: Never for an instant were they daunted by 
the tidings of the extensive and mighty preparations going 
forward ; for the news filled Europe, and a hundred harbors 
in Norway, Denmark, France, England, and the Channel Isles 
resounded day and night with the bustle preparatory to the 
coming of war. Brian was fully equal to the emergency. He 
resolved to meet force by force, combination by combination, 
preparation by preparation ; to defy the foe and let them see 
''what Irishmen could do." His efforts were nobly seconded 
by the zeal of all the tributary princes (with barely a few 
exceptions), but most nobly of all by the deposed Malachy, 
whose conduct upon this occasion alone would entitle him to 
a proud place in the annals of Ireland. In one of the pre- 
liminary expeditions of the Danes a few years previously, he 
detected more quickly than Brian the seriousness of the work 
going forward ; he sent word immediately to Kincora that the 
Danes, who had landed near Dublin, were marching inward, 
and entreated Brian to hasten to check them promptly. The 
Ard-Ri, however, was at that time absolutely incredulous that 
anything more serious than a paltry foray was designed, and 
he refused, it is said, to lend any assistance to the local prince. 
But Malachy had a truer conception of the gravity of the case. 
He himself marched to meet the invaders, and in a battle 
which ensued, routed them, losing, however, in the hour of 
victory his son Flann. This engagement awakened Brian to 
a sense of the danger at hand. He quickly despatched an 
auxiliary force, under his son Morrogh, to Malachy 's aid; 
but the Danes, driven within their walled city of Dublin by 
Malachy, did not venture out; and so the Dalcassian force 
returned southwards, devastating the territory of the traitor 
Maelmorha, of Leinster, whose perfidy was now openly pro- 
claimed. 



CHAPTEE X. 

THE DANES CRUSHED— IRELAND VICTORIOUS AT CLONTARF. 

Brian soon became fully aware of the scheme at which the 
Danes all over Europe were laboring, and of the terrible 
trial approaching for Ireland. Through all the autumn of 
that year, 1013, and the spring months of the year following, 
the two powers, Danish and Irish, were working hard at 
preparations for the great event, each straining every energy 
and summoning every resource for the crisis. Towards the 
end of March, Brian's arrangements being completed, he 
gave the order for a simultaneous march to Kilmainham, 
usually the camping ground at that time of the national forces. 
By the second week in April there had rallied to the national 
standard a force which, if numerically unequal to that 
assembled by the invaders, was, as the result showed, able to 
compensate by superior valor for whatever it lacked in num- 
bers. The lords of all the southern half of the kingdom— 
the lords of Decies, Inchiquin, Fermoy, Corca-Baiskin, Kinal- 
meaky, and Kerry— and the lords of Hy-Mani and Hi-Fiachra 
in Connacht, we are told, hastened to Brian's standard. 
O'More and 'Nolan of Leinster, and Donald, Steward of 
Marr, in Scotland, continues the historian, '^were the other 
chieftains who joined him before Clontarf, besides those of 
his own kindred," or the forces proper of Thomond. Just one 
faint shadow catches the eye as we survey the picture pre- 
sented by Ireland in the hour of this great national rally. 
The northern chieftains, the lords of Ulster, alone held back. 
Sullen and silent they stirred not. ''They had submitted to 
Brian, but they never cordially supported him.'* 

The great Danish flotilla, under Brodar, the admiral-in- 
chief, entered Dublin Bay on Palm Sunday, the 18th of April, 
1014. The galleys anchored, some at Sutton, near Howth, 
others were moored in the mouth of the river Liffey, and the 
rest were beached or anchored in a vast line stretching along 
the Clontarf shore, which sweeps between the two points indi- 
cated. Brian immediately swung his army round upon Glas- 
nevin, crossed the Tolka at the point where the Botanical 
Gardens now stand, and faced his line of battle southward 
towards where the enemy were planted, or encamped upon the 

73 



74 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

shore. Meantime, becoming aware that Maelmorha, prince 
of Leinster, was so eager to help the invader that he had 
entered the Danish camp with every man of his following, 
Brian secretly despatched a body of Dalcassians, under his 
son Donagh, to dash into the traitors' territory and waste it 
with fire and sword. The secret march southward of the 
Dalcassians was communicated to Maelmorha by a spy in 
Brian's camp, and, inasmuch as the Dalcassians were famed 
as the ''invincible legion" of the Irish army, the traitor urged 
vehemently upon his Danish allies that this was the moment 
to give battle— while Brian's best troops were away. Accord- 
ingly, on Holy Thursday, the Danes announced their resolu- 
tion to give battle next day. Brian had the utmost reluctance 
to fight upon that day, which would be Grood Friday, thinking 
it almost a profanation to engage in combat upon the day on 
which our Lord died for man's redemption. He begged that 
the engagement might be postponed even one day; but the 
Danes were all the more resolute to engage on the next morn- 
ing, for, says an old legend of the battle, Brodar, having con- 
sulted one of the Danish pagan oracles, was told that if he 
gave battle upon the Friday Brian would fall. 

With early dawn next day, Good Friday, 23rd of April, 
1014, all was bustle in both camps. The Danish army, facing 
inland, northwards or northeast, stretched along the shore of 
Dublin Bay, its left flank touching and protected by the city 
of Dublin, its center being about the spot where Clontarf 
Castle now stands, and its right wing resting on Dollymount. 
The Irish army, facing southwards, had its right on Drum- 
condra, its center on Fairview, and its extreme left on Clon- 
tarf. The Danish forces were disposed of in three divisions, 
of which the first, or left, was composed of the Danes of 
Dublin, under their king, Sitric, and the princes Dolat and 
Conmeal, with the thousand Norwegians already mentioned 
as clothed in suits of ringed m_ail, under the youthful warriors 
Carlus and Anrud; the second, or central division, was com- 
posed chiefly of the Lagenians, commanded by Maelmorha 
himself, and the princes of Offaly and of the Liffey territory; 
and the third division, or right wing, was made up of the 
auxiliaries from the Baltic and the Islands, under Brodar, 
with some British auxiliaries from Wales and Cornwall, To 
oppose these the Irish monarch also marshalled his forces in 
three corps or divisions. The first, or right wing, composed 
chiefly of the diminished legions of the brave Dalcassians, 



Ancient Ireland 75 

was under the coinmand of his son Morrogh, who had also with 
him his four brothers, Teige, Donald, Conor, and Flann, and 
his own son (grandson of Brian), the youthful Torlogh, who 
was but fifteen years of age. In this division also fought 
Malachy with the Meath contingent. The Irish center division 
composed the troops of Desmond, or South Munster, under 
the command of Kiaa, son of Molloy, and Donel, son of Duv 
Davoren (ancestor of the O'Donoghue), both of the Eugenian 
line. The Irish left wing was composed mainly of the forces 
of Connaught, under 'Kelley, prince of Hy-Manie (the great 
central territory of Connact) ; O'Heyne, prince of Hy-Fiachra 
Ahna, and Echtigern, king of Dalaradia. It is supposed that 
Brian's army numbered about 20,000 men. 

All being ready for the signal of battle, Brian himself, 
mounted on a richly-caparisoned charger, rode through the 
Irish lines, as all the records are careful to tell us, '^with his 
sword in one hand, and a crucifix in the other," exhorting the 
troops to remember the momentous issues that depended upon 
the fortunes of that day— Eeligion and Country against Pagan- 
ism and bondage. It is said, that on this occasion he delivered 
an address which moved his soldiers, now to tears, and anon 
to the utmost pitch of enthusiasm and resolution. And we can 
well imagine the effect, upon an army drawn up as they were 
for the onset of battle in defence of ''Faith and Fatherland," 
of such a sight and such an appeal— their aged and venerable 
monarch, "his white hair floating in the wind," riding through 
their lines, with the sacred sjinbol of Redemption borne aloft, 
and adjuring them, as the chronicles tell us, to '^remember 
that on this day Christ died for us, on the Mount of Calvary." 
Moreover, Brian himself had given them an earnest, such 
perhaps as monarch had never given before, of his resolve, 
that with the fortunes of his country he and his sons and 
kinsmen all would stand or fall. He had brought "his sons 
and nephews there," says the historian, who might have 
added, and even his grandchildren," and showed that he was 
prepared to let existence of his race depend upon the issue of 
the day. ' ' We may be sure a circumstance so affecting as this 
was not lost upon Brian's soldiers. It gave force to every 
word of his address. lie recounted, we are told, all the bar- 
barities and the sacrileges perpetrated by the invaders in 
their lawless ravages on Irish soil, the shrines they had plun- 
dered, the holy relics they had profaned, the brutal cruelties 
they had inflicted on unarmed non-combatants— nay, on "the 



76 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

servants of the Altar." Then, raising the crucifix aloft, he 
invoked the Omnipotent God to look down upon them that day, 
and to strengthen their arms in a cause so just and holy. 

Mr. William Kenealy is the author of a truly noble poem 
which gives all the native vigor and force of the original— this 
thrilling ''Address of King Brian to his Army" : 

Stand ye now for Erin's glory ! Stand ye now for Erin*s cause ! 

Long ye've groaned beneath the rigor of the Northmen's sav- 
age laws. 

What though brothers league against us? What though 
myriads be the foef 

Victory shall be more honoured by the myriad's overthrow. 

Proud Connacians ! oft we 've wrangled in our pretty feuds of 

yore; 
Now we fight against the robber Dane upon our native shore ; 
May our hearts unite in friendship as our blood in one red 

tide, 
While we crush their mail-clad legions, and annihilate their 

pride ! 

Brave Eugenians! Erin triumphs in the sight she sees to- 
day- 
Desmond's homesteads all deserted for the muster of the fray ! 
Cluan's vale and Galtees' summit send their bravest and their 

best; 
May such hearts be theirs for ever for the Freedom of the 
West! 

Chiefs and Kernes of Dalcassia ! Brothers of my past career, 
Oft we've trodden on the pirate flag that flaunts before us 

here ; 
You remember Inniscattery, how we bounded on the foe. 
As the torrent of the mountain bursts upon the plain below? 

They have razed our proudest castles— spoiled the Temples 

of the Lord- 
Burnt to dust the sacred relic— put the Peaceful to the 

Sword— 
Desecrated all things holy— as they soon may do again, 
If their power to-day we smite not— if to-day we be not men ! 



Ancient Ireland 77 

On this day the God-man suffered— look npon the sacred 

sign- 
May we conquer 'neath this banner as of old did Constantine I 
May the heathen tribe of Odin fade before it like a dream, 
And the triumph of this glorious day in future annals gleam! 

God of Heaven bless our banner— nerve our sinews for the 

strife ! 
Fight we now for all that's holy— for our altars, land and 

life- 
For red vengeance on the spoiler, whom the blazing temples 

trace— 
For the honor of our maidens and the glory of our race ! 

Should I fall before the f oeman, 'tis the death I seek to-day ; 
Should ten thousand daggers pierce me, bear my body not 

away, 
Till this day of days is over— till the field is fought and won— 
Then the holy Mass be chanted, and the funeral rites be done. 

Men of Erin, men of Erin, grasp the battle-axe and spear ! 
Chase these Northern wolves before you like a herd of fright- 
ened deer, 
Burst their ranks like bolts from heaven ! Down on the hea- 
then crew, 
^or the glory of the Crucified, and Erin's glory too! 

Who can be astonished that, as he ceased, a shout, wild, fu- 
rious and deafening burst from the Irish lines? A cry arose 
from the soldiers, we are told, demanding instantly to be led 
against the enemy. The aged monarch now placed himself 
at the head of his guards, to lead the van of battle ; but at this 
point his sons and all the attendant princes and commanders 
protested against his attempting, at his advanced age, to take 
part personally in the conflict; and eventually, after much 
effort, they succeeded in persuading him to retire to his tent 
and to let the chief command devolve upon his oldest son 
Morrogh. 

*'The battle,'* says the historian, "then commenced--' a 
spirited, fierce, violent, vengeful, and furious battle— the like- 
ness of which was not to be found at that time,' as the old 
annalists quaintly describe it. It was a conflict of heroes. The 
chieftains engaged at every point in single combat; and the 



78 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

greater part of them on both sides fell. The impetuosity of 
the Irish was irresistible, and their battle-axes did fearful 
execution, every man of the ten hundred mailed warriors of 
Norway having been made to bite the dust, and it was against 
them, we are told, that the Dalcassians had been obliged to 
contend single-handed. The heroic Morrogli performed prodi- 
gies of valor throughout the day. Ranks of men fell before 
him ; and, hewing his way to the Danish standard, he cut down 
two successive bearers of it with his battle-axe. Two Danish 
leaders, Carolus and Conmael, enraged at this success, rushed 
on him together, but both fell in rapid succession by his sword. 
Twice, Morrogh and some of his chiefs retired to slake their 
thirst and cool their hands, swollen from the violent use of 
the sword; and the Danes, observing the vigor with which 
their returned to the conflict, succeeded, by a desperate effort, 
in cutting off the brook which had refreshed them. Thus the 
battle raged from an early hour in the morning — innumerable 
deeds of valor being performed on both sides, and victory ap- 
pearing still doubtful, until the third or four hour in the after- 
noon, when a fresh and desperate effort was made by the 
Irish, and the Danes, now almost destitute of leaders, began 
to waver and give way at every point. Just at this moment 
the Norwegian prince, Anrud, encountered Morrogh, who was 
unable to raise his arms from fatigue, but with the left hand he 
seized Anrud and hurled him to the earth, and with the other 
placed the point of his sword on the breast of the prostrate 
Northman, and, leaning on it, plunged it through his body. 
While stooping, however, for this purpose, Anrud contrived to 
inflict on him a mortal wound with a dagger, and Morrogh fell 
in the arms of victory. According to other accounts, Morrogh 
was in the act of stooping to relieve an enemy when he received 
from him his death wound. This disaster did not have the ef- 
fect of turning the fortune of the day, for the Danes and 
their allies were in a state of utter disorder, and along their 
whole line had commenced to fly towards the city or to their 
ships. They plunged into the Tolka at a time, we may con- 
clude, when the river was swollen with the tide, so that great 
numbers were drowned. The body of young Turlough was 
found after the battle 'at the weir of Clontarf, ' with his hands 
entangled in the hair of a Dane whom he had grappled with in 
the pursuit. 

"But the chief tragedy of the day remains to be related. 
Brodar, the pirate admiral, who commanded in the point of 



■I 




DEATH OF KING BRIAN BORU, 
Good Friday, 1014. 



Ancient Ireland 79 

the Danish lines remotest from the city, seeing the rout gen- 
eral, was making his way through some thickets with only a 
few attendants, when he came upon the tent of Brian Borumha, 
left at that moment without his guards. The fierce Norseman 
rushed in and found the aged monarch at prayer before the 
crucifix, which he had that morning held up to the view of his 
troops, and attended only by his page. Yet, Brian had time 
to seize his arms, and died sword in hand. The Irish accounts 
say that the king killed Brodar, and was only overcome by 
numbers; but the Danish version in the Niala Saga is more 
probable, and in this Brodar is represented as holding up his 
reeking sword, and crying: 'Let it be proclaimed from man 
to man that Brian has been slain by Brodar.' It is added, 
on the same authority, that the ferocious pirate was then 
hemmed in by Brian's returned guards and captured alive, 
and that he was hung from a tree, and continued to rage like 
a beast of prey until all his entrails were torn out— the Irish 
soldiers thus taking savage vengeance for the death of their 
king, who but for their own neglect would have been safe. ' ' 

Such was the victory of Clontarf — one of the most glorious 
events in the annals of Ireland. It was the final effort of 
the Danish power to effect the conquest of this coimtry. Never 
again was that effort renewed. For a century subsequently 
the Danes continued to hold some raaritime cities in Ireland ; 
but never more did they dream of conquest. That design was 
overthrown forever on the bloody plain of Clontarf. 

It was, as the historian called it truly, ''a conflict of 
heroes." There was no flinching on either side, and on each 
side fell nearly every commander of note who had entered the 
battle. The list of the dead is a roll of nobility, Danish and 
Irish; amongst the dead being the brave Caledonian chiefs, 
the great Stewards of Mar and Lennox, who had come from 
distant Alba to fight on the Irish side that day. 

But direst disaster of all— most woful in its ulterior re- 
sults affecting the fate and fortunes of Ireland— was the 
slaughter of the reigning family: Brian himself, Morrogh, 
his eldest son and destined successor, and his grandson, ''the 
youthful Torlogh," eldest child of Morrogh— three genera- 
tions cut down in one day upon the same field of battle. 

' ' The fame of the event went out through all nations. The 
chronicles of Wales, of Scotland, and of Man; the annals of 
Ademar and Marianus; the sages of Denmark and the Isles, 
all record the event. The Norse settlers in Caithness saw 



80 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



terrific visions of Vallialla ' the day after the battle. ' " ' * The 
annals state that Brian and Morrogh both lived to receive 
the last sacraments of the Church, and that their remains 
were conveyed by the monks to Swords (near Dublin), and 
thence to Armagh by the Archbishop ; and that their obsequies 
were celebrated for twelve days and nights with great splen- 
dor by the clergy of Armagh ; after which the body of Brian 
was deposited in a stone coffin on the north side of the high 
altar in the cathedral, the body of his son being interred on 
the south side of the same church. The remains of Torlogh 
and of several of the chieftains were buried in the old church- 
yard of Kilmainham, where the shaft of an Irish cross still 
marks the spot. ' ' 




Sculpture on a Capital: Priest's House, Glendalough • Beranger, 1779. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER XI. 
THE LEINSTER TRIBUTE. 

BY T. oVeIL RUSSELL. 

Leinster is certainly the most historical of Irish provinces. 
There are many causes for this. First among them may be 
the fact of the existence of the Book of Leinster— the great- 
est repertory of ancient and mediaeval history, legend, annals 
and song possessed in one volume by any nation in Europe, or 
perhaps in the world. It very naturally treats more fully of 
things appertaining to Leinster than do any others of our 
old MS. It was compiled mostly from much older MSS. be- 
tween the years 1100 and 1160. It is the most important and 
precious, although not the most ancient, MS. of that once 
colossal literature of ancient Ireland, of which we now pos- 
sess only an insignificant remnant. But there were other 
things besides the Book of Leinster that tended to make Lein- 
ster famous and historic. It was the province in which the 
greater part of the Scandinavian invaders and Anglo-French 
adventurers landed; it was the last of the Irish provinces 
that possessed a king— a king who was one de facto and de 
jure, namely. Art MacMurrough, who died in the year 1418. 
But above all that tended to make Leinster historic, it was the 
province of the Tribute. 

It is very curious that so few who read Irish history know 
so comparatively little about the Leinster Tribute. Almost 
every one has heard something of Dearvorgil, O'Ruarc's faith- 
less wife, who is generally, but in my opinion erroneously, sup- 
posed to have been the cause of the English invasion of Ire- 
land ; but not one Irish person in ten has ever heard of Fihir 
or Dareena, two ladies who, without any guilt on their mem- 
ories, brought about the most unfortunate and important event 
in all Irish history— an event that, so far as we can judge, was 
the prime cause of Ireland's subsequent political misfortunes 
in general— an event that made probable its conquest by the 
Danes, and made possible its conquest by the English. 

In the first century of the Christian era, Tuathal Teacht- 
mhar was over-King of Ireland. He had two beautiful daugh- 
ters, Fihir and Dareena were their names— fairer it is said 

81 



82 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

in the Book of Leinster, 'Vtlian the clouds of heaven/' The 
king of Leinster married the elder one, Fihir, for it appears to 
have been the custom in high life in ancient Ireland that the 
elder sister should be married before the younger ones. The 
King of Leinster seems to have soon got tired of Fihir, and 
after some time went to Tara and told Tuatha that Fihir had 
died, and that he wished to marry her sister, Dareena. She 
was given to him, and he took her home with him to his dun or 
court in Rath Imel, which was probably near the Glen of 
Wicklow, now known as the Glen of Imeal. Soon after Da- 
reena was taken home, she met her sister, Fihir, whom she had 
been told was dead. When Fihir saw her sister her shame 
was so great that she dropped dead, and when Dareena saw 
her sister dead, she herself died of grief. When Tuatha heard 
of the death of both his daughters, he sent word to the King 
of Ulster, who was foster-father to Dareena, and to the King 
of Connacht, who was foster-father to Fihir. They marched 
to the aid of their suzerin, Tuatha, and with an army of 22,- 
000 men, they defeated the forces of the King of Leinster, 
killed himself, and ravaged the province from Naas to Wex- 
ford, and imposed the famous, or rather infamous, tribute on 
the unfortunate men of Leinster. The tribute was 15,000 
cows, 15,000 sheep, 15,000 pigs, 15,000 silver chains, 15,000 
mantles, 15,000 copper cauldrons, and one big cauldron, in 
which twelve pigs could be boiled at once whenever there was 
a big ''blow out" or entertainment at Tara. When we con- 
sider the fact that ancient Leinster was not nearly big as the 
modern province, and was bounded on the north-east by the 
Liifey at Dublin, and by the Brosna in the north-west, thus 
lacking half the county Dublin and all Louth, Meath, West- 
meath, Longford, and part of the King's County, which be- 
longed to the province of Meath, and that the tribute was 
intended to be paid every year, we are struck by the great 
wealth that must have been in Leinster in ancient times. But 
the tribute was not paid every year, for the gallant Leinster 
men very seldom paid it until they had to— that is, until they 
were defeated in battle. It is amusing to read in the Book of 
Leinster, in the narrative given about the tribute, how such 
and such over-kings got it, but always observing, as a sort of 
set-off against the indignity of having to pay it, ''They didn't 
get it without a fight," Nis fuar gan cath. The tribute was 
paid on and off for over five hundred years ; it was at length 
remitted in the seventh century by the over-king Finnachta at 



Ancient Ireland 83 

the intercession of St. Moling. It is simply appalling to read 
about the innumerable battles that for more than five hundred 
years were fought about the Tribute. Its effect was, very 
naturally, to denationalize Leinster almost entirely, and make 
its harried inhabitants join the enemies of their country to 
find relief from the dreadful bondage in which they were. 
Although the Tribute had been ostensibly remitted before the 
Danes invaded Ireland, its memories had not vanished ; conse- 
quently we find the Leinstermen allies of the Danes very soon 
after they had established themselves in Ireland ; and in later 
times still, goaded by the memories of the Tribute, and the 
frequent attempts made by the other provinces to re-impose it, 
we find Leinstermen joining with the English as they had 
previously joined with the Danes, and fighting under the Eng- 
lish Strongbow at Wexford as they had fought under the 
Danish Citric at Clontarf. 

Thus it was that the Leinster Tribute brought about the 
political ruin of Ireland by totally denationalising one of its 
finest provinces. Much addicted as the ancient Irish were to 
fighting among themselves, the candid student of Irish his- 
tory has to admit that, so far as can be gathered from ancient 
MSS., the Irish lived in comparative peace before the Lein- 
ster Tribute came to curse them. It is said in the ''Liabhar 
na L-Uidhre, ' ' a manuscript of the highest authority, that dur- 
ing the reign of Connaire Mor, who lived about a century be- 
fore the imposition of the Leinster Tribute, there was perfect 
peace in Ireland, although he reigned over fifty years. There 
is a very curious poem in the Book of Leinster composed by 
one Broccan. This poem has not, so far as I know, been trans- 
lated by any one but myself, and I am afraid I have translated 
it very imperfectly. It is a poem in praise of Leinster, and 
was written in the tenth or eleventh century. There are two 
lines in it about the way Leinster was harried and ravaged 
about the Tribute, which, for awfulness and terribleness al- 
most to blasphemy, may be said to be without parallel in the 
literature of the world. The poet, and he seems to have been 
a Churchman also, says— 

It is beyond the testimony of the Creator, it is beyond the 

Word of supplicating Christ, 
All the kings of the Irish that make attacks on Leinstermen ! 

Almost every imaginable horror of war that cursed Ire- 



5^4 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

land for over five hundred years may be traced to this abomin- 
able Tribute. One horror connected with it is so awful and 
so unique in Irish history that it has to be mentioned. This 
is the killing of the women at Tara when Cormac Mac Art was 
chief king, in the year 248 of era. There appears to have been 
at that time some political or druidic festival at Tara, and, 
as was always the case in ancient Ireland, wherever there 
was a great gathering of men there was sure to be a great 
gathering of women, for women seem to have occupied a high 
position in ancient Ireland. What the nature of the gather- 
ing was I have not been able to find out, but there were 
thirty royal maidens at it, each one having a hundred female 
attendants, making in all 3,030 women. Dulaing, the King of 
Leinster at the time, by some means of which we are not in- 
formed, got to Tara with a body of armed men, burned every 
building in it, and killed the whole of the 3,030 women. This 
fact is so often mentioned, not only in so many of the manu- 
scripts, but in the Book of Leinster itself, that there cannot be 
any doubt as to its authenticity. The Leinster men had evi- 
dently become maddened to desperation by the Tribute, and 
were hardly accountable for what they did, but it is easy to 
see that although having been caused by the odious Tribute, 
the act was looked on, even by Leinstermen, as a horrible 
atrocity. Cormac hanged ten of the most prominent of the 
Leinster chiefs on account of it, and doubled the Tribute the 
unfortunate province had to pay. It is not told to what parts 
of Ireland the murdered ladies belonged, but we may be sure 
there were no Leinster girls among them. 

In a century or a century and a half after the murder of 
the women at Tara, the Leinstermen seem to have become 
absolutely desperate, and to have been seized with a war 
mania which not even the united forces of the over-King and 
the Kings of the other provinces seem to have been able to 
resist. The Leinstermen evidently came to the conclusion 
that it was better to die fighting than to starve and pay the 
Tribute ; so they fought rather than pay it ; and under two of 
their Kings, Enna Ginsclach and Brasal Beallach, they seem 
to have licked all Ireland, over-Kings and provincial Kings, 
north, south, and west. But as one cannot fight four, so in 
the long run the Leinstermen had to bow their necks and pay 
the Tribute when they were unable to fight and be victorious. 

The most complete and perfect history of the Leinster 
Tribute we have is in the Book of Leinster. It is a long tract, 



Ancient Ireland 85 

and takes up twenty-nine columns of that manuscript. It has 
been recently translated by Mr. Whitley Stokes in the Revue 
Celtique for 1892, and by Mr. S. H. 'Grady in Silva Gadileca. 
The translation by Mr. Stokes is considered to be by far the 
better one of the two; but both translations are most imper- 
fect, as the poetic or rhymed parts of the tract are not trans- 
lated at all. The excuse made by Mr. Stokes for not having 
translated them is that they are, for the most part, repetitions 
of the prose. This is in a measure true ; but there are a great 
many things said in the poetry that are entirely omitted in the 
prose. There are no less than twenty short pieces of poetry 
in this tract, altogether over 600 lines, hardly a line of which 
has been yet translated and printed. It has to be admitted 
that the poetic or rhymed parts of this wondrous tale of the 
^'Boramha," or Tribute, are much more difficult to translate 
than the prose parts, and they are, it would appear, written in 
more ancient language; but there surely can be nothing in 
them that such a master of ancient Gaelic as Mr. Stokes could 
not interpret; and, besides, the poetry contains passages of 
great beauty and pathos. There is probably nothing in the 
whole mass of ancient literature, not excepting even that of 
ancient Greece and Eome, which for pathos, dramatic power, 
originality, and versatility can surpass this unique remnant of 
ancient Irish literature, which, through the combined influence 
of carelessness, prejudice, and death-like apathy on the part 
of the Irish people, had remained unknown and unheeded for 
centuries, and was translated and published only a few years 
ago. Had such a gem of history and song existed in any Eu- 
ropean language save Gaelic, every cultured man in Christen- 
dom would have been acquainted with it centuries ago. 

There are two instances of self-sacrifice mentioned in this 
wondrous tract relating to the Borahma or Tribute, which 
deserve especial notice. Mr. 'Grady, in his translation of 
it, passes them over in silence, but Mr. Stokes draws especial 
attention to them. The incidents are as follows : 

A head-King or Emperor of Ireland, who reigned in the 
sixth century of our era, was named Hugh. His son, Cumas- 
gach, was the heir-apparent. He was a bad boy, as will be 
easily seen. He took it into his head that he would visit the 
courts or duns of the provincial rulers or Kings and make in- 
sulting proposals to their wives. We are not told how he 
fared until he reached the residence of Bran Dubh, King of 
Leinster, who lived near Baltiuglass, in the present county 



86 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

of Wicklow. Bran had heard of Cumasgach's intentions, and 
was determined ''to fix" him. He dressed himself in the 
garments of a slave, and ordered his people to tell Cumasgach 
that he had gone over the sea to Britain to collect his Tribute 
there. Mrs. Bran Dubh took Cumasgach out to the cook- 
house, which evidently was a large wooden bu.ilding detached 
from the dwelling house, and showed him and his attendants 
the great joint of meat that was being prepared for them. At 
a signal given by Mrs. Bran Duhb, who, in the meantime, had 
slipped out of the building, a trap door fell, and none were 
inside but Cumasgach and one of his attendants named Glas- 
daimh. Then the house was set on fire. ' ' Who is burning the 
house on me 1 ' ' cried Cumasgach. ' ' 'Tis I, ' ' cried Bran Dubh, 
making himself known. ''Bran Dubh," cried Glasdaimh, 
"you know me; I have eaten your food; would you play 
treachery on me?" "No," said Bran Dubh, and he told Glas- 
daimh how he could escape from the burning house. ' ' Do you 
hear that?" said Glasdaimh to Cumasgach. "Here, put my 
clothes on you ; they will not know you in them, and will think 
it is I who am escaping. ' * So the poor attendant, Glasdaimh, 
was burned, and Cumasgach, his master, escaped, but only tq 
be killed in a few hours by one of Bran Dubh's retainers, to 
whom he made himself known. When the chief -King, Hugh, 
heard of the killing of his son, he invaded Leinster with an 
immense army, and then occurred the battle of Dunbolg, on 
the borders of Wicklow and Kildare, one of the most extra- 
ordinary ever fought. Bran Dubh could not get together 
enough men to oppose the forces of the Ard-Eigh, or chief- 
King. He was, however, equal to the occasion. He got 3,000 
oxen, put two hanging panniers on each of them, put a warrior 
armed with a short sword and, of course, a shield, into each 
basket ; put bacon, meal, or some other sort of provisions, on 
top of the panniers or hampers, so that it would be thought 
there was nothing in them but provisions. The 3,000 oxen 
were driven into the camp of the imperial forces in the middle 
of the night; when challenged by the men on watch, their 
drivers said they were the provision carriers of the army of 
the chief-King. The loaded oxen were admitted to the camp ; 
the hidden warriors jumped out, and one of the most awful 
battles recorded in Irish history commenced. 

The forces of the chief -King, in spite of their much greater 
numbers, were cut to pieces, and the chief -King himself slain. 
The Leinstermen paid no Tribute that year. 



Ancient Ireland 87 

The other incident of self-sacrifice recorded in this tract 
is of a King of Cornacht named Ailill. He made an unjust 
war against another province and was defeated in battle. 
When fleeing from the field he ordered his charioteer to look 
back and tell him if his people were being slaughtered. ' ' The 
slaughter of your people is intolerable," replied the char- 
ioteer. ''Turn the chariot," said Ailill; ''face my enemies; 
when they kill me they will be satisfied and will cease slaugh- 
tering my people." The charioteer did as he was directed; 
Ailill was killed ; the slaughter of his people ceased ; but we 
are not told what became of the charioteer. 

The intense hatred between Leinster and Meath (the prov- 
ince under the direct authority of the chief King) engendered 
by this horrible Tribute, is almost inconceivable. That hatred 
remained in all its intensity for over a thousand years. The 
introduction of Christianity seems to have been utterly pow- 
erless to stop it, for Leogiiaire MacNeill, the chief King con- 
temporary with St. Patrick, and who was converted to Chris- 
tianity, was one of the most terrible foes ever the Leinster- 
men had. They often thrashed him about the Tribute, and 
had even taken him prisoner, and spared his life; but even 
in death he was their enemy, for we are told in the Leabhar 
nah-Uidhre that when he was ' ' killed by the elements his body 
was interred with his warrior weapons in the south-east ram- 
part of the Eoyal Rath of Leoghaire at Tara; and his face 
was turned south against the Leinstermen as if fighting with 
them, for he had been their enemy when he was alive." 

One of the first, if not the very first, converts that St. Pat- 
rick made in Ireland, was a man named Dubhthach. He seems 
to have been a good Christian, but it is probable that he was 
a better Leinsterman than a Christian, for he has left us a 
poem in praise of his native province, which for intense na- 
tionality, laudation of Leinster, contempt for the other prov- 
inces, and power of language cannot be equalled by anything 
in the whole immense mass of ancient Irish literature. The 
poem and translation may be seen in 'Curry's "MS. Ma- 
terials of Irish History." Dubhthach says that, "except the 
Hosts of Heaven round the Creator, there was never a host 
like the Leinstermen round Criomhthan," and that the war- 
cry of the Leinstermen should ever be "Moradh Laighen, 
milleadh Midhe"— "the magnification of Leinster, the destruc- 
tion of Meath," for Meath, together with the whole North of 
Ireland, represented the chief King to whom the Leinster 



88 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Tribute was to be paid. It is very curious that even to the 
present day whenever there are wrestling matches in the 
Phoenix Park, Dublin and Kildare are always pitted against 
Meath, showing that the remembrance of the Tribute has not 
even yet been vanished. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the Tribute had been re- 
mitted by the over-King, Fionnachta, in the seventh century, 
attempts were made to reimpose it on the unfortunate prince 
afterwards. It is popularly believed that the banishment of 
Dermot MacMurrough and the consequent invasion of Ireland 
by the Anglo-French was brought about by his liason with the 
wife of 'Euarc. I take a different view of the matter. It was 
not until thirteen years after the affair with 'Euarc 's wife 
that Dermot was banished. The facts seem to be that the 
other provinces thought it was time to re-impose the Tribute 
on Leinster, and they wanted to get rid of Dermot, who was 
a very war-like man, and who would fight to the bitter end in 
defense of his kingdom. The military power of the Danes in 
Ireland seems to have been almost entirely broken at Clon- 
tarf, and after it they gave the Irish very little trouble, and 
were unable to help their allies, the Leinstermen. If we read 
carefully between the lines of history we cannot fail to see 
that the banishment of Dermot MacMurrough arose from no 
sentimental feeling about his having broken the sanctity of 
marriage, but from the sordid one of getting him out of the 
way in order that the hateful Tribute might be more easily 
re-imposed on the unfortunate province of Leinster. Many 
attempts had been made to re-impose it after Fionnachta re- 
mitted it in the seventh century. The learned and pious Cor- 
mac M'Cullinan, King of Munster and Archbishop of Cashel, 
seems to have had no object in going to war with Leinster in 
the tenth century but to make that province pay him his share 
of the Tribute. It is hinted in Irish annals that he was forced 
against his will, by some influential man of his own province, 
into war with Leinster. His army was defeated and he him- 
self killed at the terrible battle of Ballach Moon, in the pres- 
ent county of Carlow in the year 903. 

It is to be hoped that people will not become disgusted with 
Irish history, and think it contains nothing but a catalogue of 
battles and murders. They should remember that the ancient 
history of all countries is, for the most part, a record of bat- 
tles. They should remember that Greece was for a thousand 
years as much of an internecine battle-ground as ever Ireland 



Ancient Ireland 



89 



was ; but jthe strife of Greeks among themselves did not pre- 
vent them from creating works of art or from producing a 
literature that shall serve as models of perfection to the end 
of time. Ireland, too, in spite of her internal commotions 
and unspeakable political misfortunes of almost every kind, 
created a literature that must, if we can judge by the remnant 
that is left of it, have been of colossal magnitude. But ancient 
Ireland has left us something which ancient Greece, with all 
her transcendent genius, has failed to bequeath us— something 
more enduring than the mightiest works of architecture, or 
the most perfect specimens of sculpture ; for the music of 
ancient Ireland shall, by its incomparable pathos, melt the 
hearts of multitudes in the far distant future, when the 
choicest models of Grecian art shall have ceased to exist, and 
when even the Acropolis and the Parthenon shall have crum- 
bled into dust. 




Ornament on leather case of Book of Armagh. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER XII. 

ST. PATEICK's burial place— by very rev. SYLVESTER MALONE. 

M. R. I. A. 

The burial-place of our national saint, like other incidents 
connected with him, has been matter of doubt and discussion. 
The doubt arises from the contradictory notices in the Book of 
Armagh. These notices appear in one place to favor the claim 
of Downpatrick to the burial-place; in a second place, the 
claim of Saul quite convenient to it ; and in a third place, the 
claim of Armagh. The value of each of these notices is not 
the same, but depends on the intrinsic evidence of the state- 
ment, as well as on the bias and intelligence of the writer, 
and on the age to which he belonged. 

The claim of Armagh is very slender, and rests merely on 
the possession of some relics of St. Patrick of some kind, 
coupled with the supposition of only one Patrick having been 
in the early Irish Church; but the existence of two Patricks 
and their respective identities have been established by a 
writer in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record. I am not in accord 
with those who deny the existence of bodily relics of St. Pat- 
rick in Armagh during the ninth century. It was natural 
and usual to desire the possesion of some relic of a saint less 
renowned than St. Patrick; and that Armagh procured some 
bodily relic of him is clearly evidenced in a passage in the 
Book of Armagh. This passage, which must have escaped 
the notice of the advocates for Armagh, taken by itself would 
seem to favor their pretensions. 

The biographers of our national saint have surrounded his 
death and burial with childish miracles. A comparison in- 
stituted by them between him and Moses, however edifying it 
may be, has led to error on several incidents in his life and 
the circumstances of his burial. The advocates for Down- 
patrick have so rested the story of his death and burial on a 
supernatural basis, as scarcely to leave a human fringe for 
historical criticism. Nevertheless, the proofs adduced by 
them appear to me quite questionable, while I judge those in 
favor of Saul to be highly probable. 

I now give a description of St. Patrick's burial-place from 
the oldest, most imipartial, and consistent account in the Booh 

91 



92 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

of Armagh. Tireehan, in a lengthened summary of the saint's 
life, taken from the oral and written account of Bishop Ultan, 
who lived in the middle of the seventh century, states that St. 
Patrick was like to Moses in four things, and the fourth thing 
was, * ' no person knew where are his bones. ' * The writer then 
continues to state that two hosts contended for his body dur- 
ing twelve days without night ; and on the twelfth day, as the 
contending parties were going to give battle, each party saw 
with themselves the body on a bier, and in consequence re- 
frained from fighting. 

Then, as if to justify a departure, by the discovery of 
Columkille from the likeness to Moses, the writer continues 
thus in reference to the burial and the prophetic gift of 
Columkille : 

' ' Columkille, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, point- 
ed out the burial-place of St. Patrick, makes out for certain 
where it is, that is, in Sabul-Patrick, that is in the church, as 
a sprout from the waves, beside the sea, where is the bring- 
ing together of relics, that is of the bones of Columkille from 
Britain, and the bringing together of all the saints of Ireland 
on the day of judgment. ' ' 

Now, nothing can be clearer than this valuable statement. 
The burial-place is stated to have been at the Sabul or Barn 
of Patrick; there was only one such place, and that within 
two miles of Down. The passage just quoted calls for a few 
remarks. First of all, the absence of darkness during the 
twelve days of waking is only a natural explanation of the 
effect of the lights over the corpse; and though there may 
have been a desire on the part of some people from Armagh 
to have the burial take place with themselves, we need not 
suppose there was a disposition to come to blows ; a little ex- 
aggeration in the description is only very natural. The saint's 
wish was a command; and, as stated in the BooTc of Armagh, 
that wish was carried out by his burial in Sabul or Saul. A 
holy rivalry for the possession of his body was a mark of re- 
ligious zeal. Hence in another passage in the Booli or Ar- 
magh, in reference to this subject, the writer states that with- 
out divine intervention, *'it was impossible to have the peace 
kept about so illustrious and saintly a corpse.*' Friendly 
contention then about the body of our saint was only what 
decency required. 

There is no good reason for doubting that some of the 
relics of St. Columkille may have been enshrined with those 



Ancient Ireland 93 

of St. Patrick, though the principal part of them were not 
located in Ireland till the end of the ninth century. St. Colum- 
kille in full health is said, in the Book of Guana, to have come 
to St. Patrick's grave, and to have enshrined some of the relics 
buried with him ; and it is not unnatural to suppose that when 
dying he or his followers after his death wished to have some 
of his own relics rest with our national apostle. 

The allusion to the gathering together of all the Irish 
saints at Saul is grounded on a petition found in his confes- 
sion, to the effect that he should lose none of the Irish given 
him by God, * ' left to him the judgment of the Irish on the day 
of doom." This tradition took another form, according to 
Tirechan: it was one of the three petitions which he made 
when dying, namely, ''that each of us repenting, even in the 
hour of death, would be saved on the day of judgment and 
escape hell. ' ' The church beside which our saint was buried— 
the sabul of Patrick— stood, as a sprout from the wave, near 
the sea. The tidal waves flowing through the inlet of Stang- 
ford Lough flooded the low-lying grounds, even under the very 
shadow of Saul. Even down to the present century, the low 
ground was occupied by a standing lake, a mile in circum- 
ference, and is still called the salt marsh ; but, in early times, 
before a rampart was thrown up to dam the waters, the Sabul 
Church, peering above the wavelets, appeared to spring from 
the very waters. Now, what is the reply usually given to this 
clear and natural statement, that he was buried in Saul? This 
only— that Saul meant Downpatrick! Such a reply scarcely 
deserves notice. We have another proof that St. Patrick was 
buried in Saul: it is found in the Fourth Life as given by 
Colgan. Saul is incidentally mentioned in connection with a 
plaything that accidentally fell into St. Patrick's grave there. 
The incident is alluded to as follows : 

* ' A boy playing about the church of Saul let his hoop drop 
into a chink in St. Patrick's grave, and having put down his 
hand to take it up could not withdraw the hand. Consequent- 
ly, Bishop Loarn, of Bright, a place near at hand, was sent 
for, and on his arrival, addressed the saint thus: *Why, 
Elder, dost thou hold the hand of the child f * " 

Here we have a statement incidentally made in reference 
to one of the incidents that filled up the life of our saint. It 
is made without a design of propping up a political or relig- 
ious system. It was made at a time when Saul was compara- 
tively insignificant, and when Downpatrick, owing to its situa- 



94 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

tion, as a great emporium, had arisen to importance, and was 
the seat of the chief of Ulidia. 

Let us examine what is said in reply to this proof. The 
reply is that St. Patrick did not hold the hand of the boy at 
all; that the phrase tenentem manum seems a translation of 
Irish in the Tripartite, gabail lama ''expelling"; that our 
saint only drove away the boy who gave annoyance, and that 
Bishop Loarn, who probably outlived our saint, was one of 
his religious family. The interpretation thus quoted is given 
on the authority of Dr. Stokes ; but, with great respect for his 
accurate knowledge of Irish, he is not to be implicitly fol- 
lowed, as has been proved elsewhere. But before dealing 
with this, his opinion, I have to observe that the Book of Ar- 
magh makes mention of a Loarn settled in Connaught, there 
is no warrant for stating that there was a Bishop Loarn in 
Downs, during the saint's lifetime; nor is there the least war- 
rant for stating that he died before our saint. There is no 
valid reason, then, producible for denying the certain state- 
ment of the biographer— that St. Patrick was dead in his 
grave when Bishop Loarn was sent for. 

I now deal with the objection founded on the opinion of 
Dr. Stokes; namely, that tenentem manum was a mistrans- 
lation of gabail lama "expelling," and that consequently St. 
Patrick was not dead, nor his grave made on the occasion 
referred to, but "drove away" the playing boy perhaps with 
too much harshness; in confirmation of this latter view, the 
Tripartite is appealed to as an authority for stating that St. 
Patrick was not "always meek and patient," and hence the 
rebuke of Bishop Loarn for probably too much harshness. 

Well, an explanation that involves a censure on our na- 
tional saint for harshness towards an unthinking boy at play 
is very suspicious. Besides, even if the boy were annoying 
the saint, as alleged, and if the saint exceeded the limits of 
moderation in correction, was it a case for having a bishop 
sent for, and having him rebuke his superior? Moreover, 
when the bishop came on the scene our saint's action was 
continued; and if tenentem manum meant expelling, the boy 
must have been persistently bold during the time the bishop 
was being sent for, and was coming to the church; and this 
fact should render impossible the charge of harshness for 
driving away the boy. 

Again, if tenentem manum in the Latin Life be, as stated, 
a mistranslation of Gabail lama in the Tripartite, and as Dr. 




Ancient Ireland 95 

Stokes has stated that the Irish Life was written in the 
eleventh century, while the Latin was written in the ninth cen- 
tury, how could the latter be a mistranslation of the former? 
In good truth, the writer of the Latin Life knew the mean- 
ing of tenentem manum, and if he wished to express the idea 
of expulsion, he had only to use the proper and natural Latin 
yespello." On the other hand, if the writer of the Tripartite 
intended to express the same idea, he would have used as on 
all other occasions he did use, the word indarb. 

The Irish, as well as the Latin phrase meant literally 
''seizing the hand," and figuratively ''overpowering" or 
"thwarting." But I am told that other instances in the Tri- 
partite countenance "expelling" as the meaning of the phrase. 
Well, all the instances which occur to me I will submit to a 
test. In looking into page 118 (Roll's Tripartite), I find the 
phrase gebthar do lam, "thy hand shall be seized." This 
was a reply from the angel to St. Patrick, who refused to 
budge until he obtained the privilege of rescuing as many 
souls from hell as hairs on his chasuble. The reply meant, 
"you shall be overpowered," and nothing more. The editor 
of the Tripartite inferred from the remark of St. Patrick about 
budging, that the reply had an antithetical meaning, but the in- 
ference was not correct. I alight on another instance on page 
116. St. Patrick wished to establish a bouse in Assaroe, but 
was opposed by Coirbre, "who sent two of his people to 'pre- 
vent him,' " gabail lama. 

But a more crucial instance of the phrase occurs in page 
156 of the Roll's Tripartite. Our saint wished to establish a 
house in Inishowen; but Coelbad "prevented him in regard 
to it," gabail a laim ass, which the editor renders by expell- 
ing ''thence." Now the addition of the word ass here, and 
not in the other instances, is translated by "thence." But 
surely we understand that when there is a question of a per- 
son being in a place, and of his expulsion, the expulsion is 
from that place. The addition of the word ass, then, is un- 
necessary on the supposition that the phrase gahail lama in 
the other instances without it meant "expelling." I shall 
not dwell on another instance, in page 164, which has the same 
meaning; and in these instances the word ass means not 
"thence" but "in regard to." 

That such is the meaning of ass, is very clearly brought 
out in page 163. It is there stated that our saint wished to 
take a place in Cell Glass, and {dlmotha do ass) "he was re- 



96 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

fused," according to Eoll's editor, but properly and literally 
^*it was refused to him in regard to it." The editor having 
no meaning for ass but ''thence," and seeing such a transla- 
tion to be unmeaning, he did not translate it at all. The Irish 
word ass lends itself to various idiomatic phrases with whicTi 
the learned editor is apparently not familiar. I hope now it 
may be admitted that the allusion to the detention of the boy's 
hand in St. Patrick's grave was not a mis-translation of the 
Irish, and that it establishes a belief in the writer of Vita 
Qtiarta as to the burial-place of St. Patrick in Saul. Not- 
withstanding the political and social greatness to which Down- 
patrick had risen, and the comparative obscurity of Saul, there 
is evidence of its claim to St. Patrick's burial-place being 
recognized in succeeding ages. Thus, the Four Masters, un- 
der the year 1293, state that the relics of St. Bridget and 
Columkille were discovered with the remains of St. Patrick 
at Patrick's Saul. The discovery, witnessed by the Arch- 
bishop of Armagh, was accompanied by miraculous manifesta- 
tions. The same statement is made in the Annals of Ulster. 
The fact remains, that at the end of the thirteenth century, 
we find solemn testimony, confirmatory of the statement made 
in the Book of Armagh, in the seventh century, in favor of 
Saul being the burial place of St. Patrick. 

Now, in reply to the several clear and natural statements 
made without the aid of supernatural agency, in favor of Saul, 
what are we told? This, that Saul meant Downpatrick, and 
that tenentem manum did not mean ' ' holding the hand. ' ' And 
the proof in favor of the rival burial-place, of what is it com- 
posed? Merely of mystery, visions, and miracles! That one 
angel was commissioned by another to send St. Patrick to 
him ; and the saint, having gone, was told by the angel from 
a flaming bush— (a) that his death would be in Saul; but, as 
a compensation to Armagh, that it should have primacy; (b) 
that there was to be no darkness for twelve days, or rather 
partial day for the rest of the year; that angels waked St. 
Patrick with vigil and psalmody during the first night, whilst 
all who came to the wake slept ; that oxen, yoked to the bier, 
were to be left to themselves to carry the corpse to the des- 
tined burial-place; (c) that the rival provinces of Down and 
Armagh were kept from deadly fight by the swelling tide, 
which became instinct with life; that on the ebb of the tide 
the people of Armagh, fording the river, fancied they saw the 
bier carried on toward Armagh, till it disappeared at Cab- 



Ancient Ireland 97 

cenne stream; that the corpse was to be buried, by angelic 
directions, seven feet deep in the earth; that the relics should 
not be removed from the earth, but a church built over them; 
(d) and yet, that no person knew where was the burial-place! 
All this supplies material for the argument in favor of Down- 
patrick ! 

But I would offer a few hurried remarks— (a) We are 
told in one place that St. Patrick went to the angel, but quite 
the contrary in the next page, (b) The primacy is said to 
have been given then to Armagh; but it had been given, on as 
good authority, long before then to Armagh, (c) The angel 
directed— a very practical direction— that a church should be 
built where the oxen were to stop, over the corpse. What if 
they had not stirred from Saul, where there was a church, or 
moved to a place where there was already a church? (d) It is 
strange that, as the Armagh people acknowledged the finger 
of God on the disappearance of the phantom bier, they paid 
no heed to the angel's, directions, and were determined to give 
battle or have the corpse, (e) It is equally strange that a 
church directed by angels to be built, was undertaken only 
at the end of the seventh century. The narrator states that 
when a foundation for the church was being dug, quite re- 
cently (novissimis temporibus), flames issued from the grave. 
Does not this prove that the burial-place was known, notwith- 
standing the similarity to Moses? Besides, the angel, in di- 
recting the building of a church, and directing that the delvers 
should sink the grave seven feet deep, must not have intended 
that the burial-place should be unknown. I may be told that 
a mistake in regard to Saul should rather be admitted than 
a whole cycle of miracles in the defence of falsehood. Well, 
however unpleasant the fact, it must be admitted that unen- 
lightened zeal or dishonest bias can sport with miracles for 
its own ends ; and the Book of Armagh affords ample proof of 
it in another passage. 

The Book of the Angels tells its readers that an angel, 
having tapped St. Patrick out of slumber, snatched from his 
long vigils, announced that God ''gave him and to the diocese 
of Armagh all Ireland." The saint then is represented as de- 
precating such a large and unnecessary gift, because of re- 
ceiving already a peculiar rent, given freely, though a debt 
ordained by God, from every free church, and as having no 
doubt that this debt would be decreed for the future bishops of 
Armagh by all cenobitical monasteries. What a caricature 



98 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

and profane libel this on the saint's disinterestedness I The 
writer ought to have remembered the confession : 

''They have given me small voluntary gifts, and some of 
their ornaments upon the altar ; but I returned these to them, 
though they were displeased with me for doing so. But . . 
. I wished to keep myself prudently in everything . . . 
so that unbelievers may not, in my ministry, in the smallest 
point, have occasion to defame it. 

"But, perhaps, since I have baptized so many thousands, 
1 may have accepted half a screapall. Tell it to me, and I will 
restore it. When the Lord ordained everywhere clergy, 
through my humble ministry, then if I asked the price of my 
shoe, tell it against me, and I will restore you more. I spent 
for you, that they may receive me. ' ' 

In order to prop up the claims of Downpatrick, angels must 
commune with each other ; man had to abdicate his senses ; the 
brute beasts are brought on the scene to act their part ; and 
the waters became instinct with life ' ' in digging deep valleys, 
while, at the same time, piercing the air" as a barrier against 
contending provinces. Heaven and earth are moved, with 
their inhabitants, in order to neutralize an historical and the 
earliest statement in favor of Saul. This simple and natural 
statement, in striking contrast to its contradictory, tells us 
that our saint, overtaken by the sickness of death at Saul, was 
there buried. Saul was his first love, the scene of his first 
missionary success, and the closing scene of his divinely-fav- 
ored apostolate. The alleged signs and wonders in connec- 
tion with the burial resemble others on which, before the pres- 
ent, I had to observe that their extravagance appeared in 
proportion to the evidence of the falsehood in support of 
which they appeared to be manufactured. Downpatrick pos- 
sessed nothing in fact, in association, in prophecy, not even 
a church, suggestive of a burial-place. Neither the glory 
of God, so far at it is allowed us to raise a corner of the myste- 
rious veil, nor edification of man called for Divine interposi- 
tion on the occasion. As to the dying wish of the saint, it cer- 
tainly did not lean to Downpatrick, nor probably, notwith- 
standing the repeated and accentuated assurances to the con- 
trary in the Book of ArmagH, to Armagh; for his wish on 
such a matter would be an absolute command; and as to a 
chosen spot, "all Ireland was given to him as his diocese." 

It was only natural, then, in the circumstances that the 
great high priest, the glorious national apostle, would lie 



Ancient Ireland 



99 



where he fell; and, if it were not natural, it would be a matter 
of indifference to him who, in his extreme old age, had to say : 

^'I daily expect murder, or to be circumvented, or reduced 
to slavery, or to a mishap of some kind. . . . And if ever 
I have imitated anything good on account of my God, Whom 
I love, I pray Him to grant me that, with those proselytes and 
captives, I may pour out my blood for His name's sake, even 
though I may be deprived of burial, and my corpse most mis- 
erably be torn limb from limb by dogs or wild beasts, or birds 
of the air should devour it." 

In conclusion : the alleged angelic direction in regard to the 
burial of St. Patrick in Down, and to the church to be built 
over him, is still further proved to be false by the fact that 
law and custom forbade any person in the fifth century to be 
buried in a church, or a church to be built over him, unless 
he was a martyr. 



L.c.fC 




Ornament on top of Devenish Round Tower 
From Petrie's "Round Towers," 400. 



SECTION II. 



MARTIN HAVERTY, Author of a "History of Ireland" 

CONTAINING 

DERMOT McMORROUGH'S PERFIDY— ABDUCTION AND FATE OF THE; 
WIFE OF THE PRINCE OF BREFNI— STRONGBOW'S ARRIVAL 
IN IRELAND— ALLEGED BULL OF POPE ADRIAN- 
LANDING OF HENRY 11. 



J 01 



THE NORMAN INVASION. 

BY MARTIN HAVERTY. 



CHAPTER I. 

CAUSES THAT LED TO THE INVASION — DERMOT MAC MURROUGH's 

PERFIDY. 

Dermot MacMurrough, or Diarmaid-na-Gall, that is, Der- 
mot of the foreigners, as he is often called, the infamous king 
of Leinster who betrayed his country to the English, now ap- 
pears on the scene, and, from the commencement, his ill- 
omened career is marked by crime. In the year 1135, accord- 
ing to Mageoghegan's Annals of Clonmacnoise, he took the 
abbess of Kildare from her cloister and compelled her to 
marry one of his men, at the same time killing 170 of the peo- 
ple of Kildare who attempted to prevent the sacrilegious out- 
rage. After being involved in various feuds in the interval, 
he endeavored, in 1141, to crush all resistance to his tyranny 
by a barbarous onslaught upon the nobles of his province. 
He killed Donnell, lord of Hy-Faelain, and Murrough O'Tuat- 
hail; put out the eyes of Muirkertach MacGillamochalmog, 
lord of Feara Cualann, or Wicklow, and killed or blinded 
seventeen other chieftains, besides many of inferior rank. 

In the year 1152 Meath was dismembered by the monarch, 
O'Louglin, aided by Turlough 'Conor, Dermot MacMur- 
rough, and other princes. From Clonard westward was given 
to Murrough O'Melaghlin, who had been formerly deposed, 
and from the same point eastward, to Murrough *s son Me- 
laghlin. Tiernan O'Rourke, lord of Breffny, was also dispos- 
sessed of his territory by this host of confederated princes ; 
and at the same time another mortal injury was inflicted on 
him, his wife, Dervorgil, being carried off by MacMurrough, 
the king of Leinster. 

The time and other circumstances of this abduction have 
been strangely distorted by historians to give a coloring of 
romance to the account of the English invasion, with which 
it cannot have had the least connection. It occurred, accord- 
ing to our authentic annals, in 1152, and Dermot *s flight to 

103 



104 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

England, and invitation to the invaders, did not take place 
till 1166. Dervorgii was at the former of these dates forty- 
fonr years of age, and her paramonr sixty-two. She was 
shamefully encouraged by her brother, Melaghlin O'Melagh- 
lin, just then made lord of East Meath, to abandon her hus- 
band, who appears to have treated her harshly before that, 
and to have deserved little sympathy as a hero of romance. 
On leaving 'Rourke, she took with her the cattle and articles 
which formed her dowry; and the following year, when she 
was rescued from MacMurrough by Turlough 'Conor, and 
restored to her family, the same cattle and other property 
were also restored. It is probable that she did not reside again 
with her husband, but retired immediately to Mellifont, where 
she endeavored by charity and rigid penance during the re- 
mainder of her life, to expiate her misconduct. Meditating 
vengeance against the country from which he was compelled to 
fly in disgrace, the fugutive king of Leinster arrived at Bris- 
tol, where he learned that Henry II., to whom he had deter- 
mined to apply for aid, was absent in Aquitaine. Thither he 
immediately proceeded ; and having at length found the Eng- 
lish king, he laid before him such a statement of his grievances 
as he thought fit. He offered to become Henry's vassal, should 
he, through his assistance, be reinstated in his kingdom, and 
made the most abject protestations of reverence and submis- 
sion. Henry lent a willing ear to his statement, and must 
have been forcibly struck by this invitation to carry out a 
project which he himself had long entertained, and for which 
he had been long making grave preparations many years 
before. That project was the invasion of Ireland. As his 
hands were, however, just then full of business— for he was 
engaged in bringing into submission the proud nobles of the 
province in which he then was, while at home the resistance 
of St. Thomas a Becket, who would not suffer him to trample 
on the rights of the church with impunity, was become daily 
more irksome— he could not occupy himself personally in 
Dermot's affairs, but gave him letters addressed to all his 
subjects— English, French, and Welsh— recommending Der- 
mot to them, and granting them a general license to aid that 
prince in the recovery of his territory by force of arms. 

With this authorization Dermot hastened back to Wales, 
where he gave it due publicity, but for some time his efforts 
to induce anyone to espouse his cause were unavailing. At 
length, he was fortunate enough to find some needy military 



i 



The Norman Invasion 105 

adventurers suited to his purpose. The chief of these was 
Eichard de Clare, commonly called Strongbow (as his father, 
Gilbert, also had been), from his skill with the crossbow. 
This man, who was earl of Pembroke and Strigul, or Chep- 
stow, being of a brave and enterprising spirit, and of ruined 
fortune, entered warmly into Dermot 's design. He under- 
took to raise a sufficient force to aid the king of Leinster 
in the recovery of his kingdom, for which Dermot promised 
him his daughter, Eva, in marriage, and the succession to the 
throne of Leinster. Two Anglo-Norman knights, Maurice 
FitzGerald and Robert FitzStephen, also enlisted themselves 
in the cause of Dermot. These men were half-brothers, being 
the sons of Nesta, who had been first the mistress of Henry I., 
then the wife of Gerald of Windsor, governor of Pembroke 
and lord of Carew, to whom she bore the former of the adven- 
turers, and finally the mistress of Constable Stephen de 
Marisco, who was the father of Robert FitzStephen. These 
knights were men of needy circumstances, and Dermot prom- 
ised to reward them liberally for their services, by granting 
them the city of Wexford with certain lands adjoining. Such 
were the obscure individuals by whom the first introduction 
of English power into Ireland was planned and carried out. 
The year 1168 was now drawing to a close, and Dermot 
MacMurrough, relying on the promises which he had obtained, 
ventured back to Ireland, and remained, during the winter, 
concealed in a monastery of Augustinian canons which he 
had founded at Ferns. There is some uncertainty as to the 
date of the first landing of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland; and 
it may also be doubted, whether some of the proceedings of 
Dermot and his foreign auxiliaries, mentioned obscurely in 
the native annals, occurred previous to the arrival of Fitz- 
Stephen, and the surrender of Wexford, in May, 1169, or 
were identical with those recorded after that time. Thus it 
is stated, that early in the year a few of Dermot *s Welsh 
auxiliaries arrived, and that with their aid he recovered pos- 
session of Hy-Kinsellagh ; but that this movement on his part 
was premature, and that at the approach of a force, hastily 
collected by Roderic O'Connor and Tiernan O'Rourke, a battle 
in which some of the Welsh were killed having been fought 
at Cill Osnadh, now Kellistown, in the county of Carlow, 
Dermot, who only wanted to gain time, made a hypocritical 
peace with the monarch, giving him seven hostages for ten 
cantreds of his former territory. It is added, that he gave a 



106 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

hundred ounces of gold to 'Rourke, as an atonement for the 
injury he had formerly inflicted on him; but all this seems 
to be only a confused version of some of the events which we 
are now about to relate in order, on the authority of Giraldus 
Cambrensis and Maurice Egan. 

According to the most probable account of the first Anglo- 
Norman descent, Robert FitzStephen, with 30 knights all 
of his own kinsmen, 60 men-at-arms, and 300 skillful archers, 
disembarked in May, 1169, at Bannow, near Wexford. One 
of the knights was Hervey de Montemarisco, or Mount- 
maurice, a paternal uncle of Earl Strongbow; and the next 
day, at the same place, landed Maurice de Prendergast, a 
Welsh gentleman, with 10 knights and 60 archers/ Dermot, 
on receiving notice of their arrival, marched with the utmost 
speed to join them with 500 men, being all that he could 
muster ; and with the joint force, he proceeded immediately to 
lay siege to the town of Wexford, the inhabitants of which 
were Dano-Irish. The first assault was repelled with great 
bravery, the inhabitants having previously set fire to the 
suburbs, that they might not afford a cover to the enemy ; but 
when the Anglo-Normans were preparing to renew the attack 
next morning, the townspeople demanded a parley and terms 
of capitulation were negotiated by the clergy ; Dermot, though 
with great reluctance, consenting to pardon the inhabitants 
on returning to their allegiance. In the first day's assault 
eighteen of the English had been slain, and only three of the 
brave garrison. FitzStephen burned the shipping which lay 
before the town ; and it is said that he destroyed also the ves- 
sels which had conveyed his own troops from England, to 
show that they were resolved never to retreat. The lordship 
of the town was then, according to the contract, made over 
to him and to FitzGerald, who had not yet arrived, and two 
cantreds of land, lying between the towns of Wexford and 
Waterford, were granted by Dermot to Hervey of Mount- 
maurice. 

Dermot now conducted his allies to Ferns, where they 
remained inactive for three weeks, without molestation, and 
indeed without appearing to excite any attention on the part 
of King Roderic and the other Irish princes. This apathy of 
the Irish, which appears to us so unaccountable and which was 
so lamentable in its consequences, partly arose, no doubt, 
from the insignificance of the invaders, in point of numbers. 
Never did a national calamity, so mighty and so deplorable, 



The Noeman Invasion 107 

proceed from a commencement more contemptible than did 
the English occupation of Ireland. The Irish were accus- 
tomed to employ parties of Danish mercenaries in their feuds. 
They had also mixed themselves up more than once in the 
quarrels of the Welsh; and they looked upon MacMurrough's 
handful of Welsh and Normans as casual auxiliaries who came 
on special duty and would depart when it was performed. 
The Irish annalists expressly state that the monarch, with 
a number of subordinate princes and a large army, entered 
Leinster at this very time, and ''went to meet the men of 
Munster, Leinster, and Ossory," but ''set nothing by the 
Flemings," as the first party of the invaders are called in 
these records. As to Roderic, he showed no foresight or 
prudence, no energy of character or real bravery, and no re- 
gard for the interests of Ireland as an integral nation, 
throughout the whole of this most fatal crisis in his coun- 
try's fortunes. About this time he celebrated the fair of 
Tailtin, when the concourse assembled was so great that the 
horsemen are said to have been spread over the tract of 
country from Mullach Aiti, now the hill of Lloyd, west of 
Kells, to Mullach Tailtin, a distance of about six and a half 
miles; yet, while this display of numbers was made within a 
couple of days' march, Dermot, with his handful of foreign 
auxiliaries, was permitted to overrun the province of Leinster, 
and to brave the anger of the imbecile monarch. 

Emboldened by the inactivity of his enemies, Dermot 
resolved to act on the offensive; and as he had a cause of 
quarrel with MacGilla Patrick, prince of Ossory, who, actu- 
ated by a feeling of jealousy, had put out the eyes of Enna, 
a son of MacMurrough's, who was in his power as a hostage, 
he determined to make him the object of his vengeance. Be- 
tween the forces of his province and the garrison of Wexford. 
Dermot was enabled to muster 3,000 men, but his principal 
reliance was on his foreign friends, in whose ranks he chiefly 
remained; and the Wexford men were so hated and dis- 
trusted by him, that they were not allowed to encamp at night 
with the rest of the army. Thus Dermot marched into Ossory, 
where the inhabitants made a brave stand ; but after a good 
deal of fighting, having been decoyed from a strong position 
into one where they were exposed to the Norman cavalry, they 
were ultimately defeated, and three hundred of their heads 
were piled up before Dermot as a trophy of victory. This 
ferocious monster is said to have leaped and clapped his 



108 Ikelaijd's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

hands with joy at the sight; and Cambrensis adds that he 
turned over the heads in the ghastly heap, and that recogniz- 
ing one of them as the head of a man to whom he had par- 
ticular aversion, he seized it by both ears, and with brutal 
frenzy bit off the nose and lips of his dead enemy. Such is 
the character which we receive of this detestable tyrant, even 
from contemporary English authorities. 

Eoderic, awakening at length to a sense of the duty which 
devolved on him, convened a meeting of the Irish princes at 
Tara, and, in obedience to the summons, a large army was 
mustered; while Dermot, who had already carried desolation 
through a great portion of Ossory, became dismayed at the 
first sjnnptoms of preparations against him, and, halting with 
his English friends in their career of havoc, returned to 
Perns, and hastily entrenched himself there. Scarcely, how- 
ever, had the Irish army assembled, when dissension broke 
out in its ranks, and on marching as far as Dublin, Eoderic 
thought fit to dispense with the services of MacDunlevy of 
Ulidia, and of 'Carroll of Oriel, who accordingly drew off 
their respective contingents, and returned home. Still the 
monarch arrived before Ferns with an army sufficient to 
annihilate the small force which he found collected there round 
Dermot ; for it must be observed, that on the news of an Irish 
army being in the field, the king of Leinster was abandoned 
by a great number of his Irish followers. 

The conduct of Eoderic on this occasion lamentably illus- 
trates the weakness of his character. Instead of proceeding 
at once to crush the dangerous foe, or insisting on the uncon- 
ditional submission of Dermot, he entered into private nego- 
tiations, first with FitzStephen, and then with Dermot; 
endeavoring to induce the former to abandon the king of 
Leinster, and to return to his own country, or to detach the 
latter from his foreign allies, and bring them to an humble 
admission of his allegiance. Such attempts showed the feeble- 
ness of his councils, and only excited the contempt of both 
FitzStephen and Dermot. Eoderic 's overtures were there- 
fore rejected with disdain, and preparations were made on 
both sides for battle. We cannot now judge how far the 
strength of the position occupied by the enemy justified the 
reluctance of the Irish monarch to attack; but we find him 
again endeavoring to avert the necessity of fighting by further 
treating with the perfidious Dermot, so that it was Eoderic, 
and not the besieged, who appeared to supplicate for peace. 



The Norman Invasion 109 

At length terms were agreed on, Eoderie consenting to give 
the full sovereignty of Leinster to Dermot and to his heirs, 
on his own supremacy being acknowledged; and Dermot on 
the other part, giving his favorite son, Conor, as a hostage 
to the monarch, and binding himself solemnly by a secret 
treaty to bring over no more foreign auxiliaries, and to dis- 
miss those now in his service, so soon as circumstances would 
permit him to do so. 

About this time Maurice de Prendergast withdrew from 
Dermot, with his followers, to the number of 200 ; and finding 
that his departure from Ireland was prevented, he offered 
his services to the king of Ossory. This defection alarmed 
Dermot, and enabled his enemy, MacGilla Patrick, to make 
some reprisals; but Maurice soon abandoned the latter also, 
and returned for a short time to Wales. 

Dermot, who only desired to gain time, soon betrayed the 
insincerity of his concessions to Koderic; for Maurice Fitz- 
Gerald having in a few days after arrived with a small party 
of knights and archers at "VYexford, he hastened to meet his 
ally, regardless of his treaty, and, with this addition to his 
forces, marched to attack Dublin, which had thrown off its 
allegiance to him, and was then governed by Hasculf Mac- 
Turkill, a prince of Danish descent. The territory around the 
city was soon laid waste in so merciless a way, that the 
inhabitants were obliged to sue for peace ; and the king of 
Leinster having glutted his revenge, accepted their submis- 
sion, for the purpose of being free to lend assistance to 
Donnell O'Brien, prince of Thomond, who had married the 
daughter of Dermot, and half-sister of Eva, and had just 
then rebelled against the monarch Roderic. This opportunity 
of weakening the power of the latter was, to the vindictive 
king of Leinster, too gratifying to be neglected ; and Dermot 
felt so elated by repeated successes, that he was no longer 
content with his position as a provincial prince, but set up a 
claim to the sovereignty of Ireland, which he grounded on the 
right of an ancestor. In his ambitious aim he was encouraged 
by his English auxiliaries; and in a consultation with Fitz- 
Stephen and FitzGerald, it was resolved that a message be 
sent immediately to Strongbow, pressing him to fulfil his 
engagements, and to come to their aid with as little delay as 
possible. 

Strongbow on his part felt himself in a difficult position. 
He could no longer act upon Henry's letters patent, Dermot 



110 Ireland's Ceown of Thorns and Roses 

being now reinstated in his kingdom; and a new sanction 
being necessary to authorize a hostile expedition to Ireland, 
he repaired to Normandy, where the English king then was, 
to solicit his permission. Henry, who was naturally jealous 
and suspicious, and entertained a particular aversion to the 
ambitious earl of Pembroke, in order to rid himself of his 
opportunity, gave him an equivocal answer, which Strongbow 
pretended to understand as the required permission. He 
thereupon returned to Wales, set about collecting men with 
all possible diligence, and sent Eaymond le Gros with ten 
knights and seventy archers as his advanced guard. This 
party landed at a small rocky promontory then called Dundolf , 
or Downdonnell, near Waterford, and being joined by Hervey 
of Mountmaurice, they constructed a temporary fort, to 
enable them to retain their position until Strongbow should 
arrive. The citizens of Waterford, aided by O'Faelain, or 
O'Phelan, prince of the Deisi, and O'Eyan, of Idrone, sent 
a hastily collected force to dislodge the invaders ; but through 
the bravery of Raymond, aided by accident, the besieged were 
not only able to defend themselves, but effectually to rout 
the undisciplined multitude who came against them, killing, 
it is said, 500 men, and taking seventy of the principal citizens 
prisoners. Large sums of money were offered to ransom the 
latter, but the English, as some say, swayed by the sanguinary 
counsel of Hervey of Mountmaurice, rejected these offers; 
and for the purpose of striking terror into the Irish brutally 
massacred the prisoners by breaking their limbs, and hurling 
them from the summit of the precipice into the sea. This 
atrocity was a fitting prelude to the English wars in Ireland ; 
but most historians vindicate Raymond le Gros from the 
stigma which it cast upon the English arms. 

In the meantime Strongbow had assembled his army of 
adventurers and mercenaries at Milford, and was about to 
embark, when he received a peremptory order from Henry 
forbidding the expedition. What was to be done? His hesi- 
tation, if any, was very brief, and he adopted the desperate 
alternative of disobeying his king. He accordingly sailed, and 
with an army of about 1,200 men, of whom 200 were knights, 
landed near Waterford on the 23d of August, the eve of St. 
Bartholomew's day. Here he was immediately joined by his 
friend Raymond le Gros, who had been three months in Ire- 
land, and the very next day he proceeded to lay siege to 
Waterford. The citizens displayed great heroism in their 




MARRIAGE OF EVA McMURROUGH TO EARL STRONGBOW. 



The Noraiax Ixvasion 111 

defence, and twice repulsed the attempts of the assailants. 
At length a large breach was made in the wall by the fall of 
a house which projected over it, and which came toppling 
down when the props by which it had been supported were 
cut by Eaymond's knights; and the besiegers pouring into 
the city made a dreadful slaughter of the inhabitants. A 
tower in which Reginald, or Gillemaire, as the Irish annalists 
call him, a lord of Danish extraction, and O'Phelan, prince of 
the Deisi, continued to defend themselves, was taken; and 
these two brave men were on the point of being massacred by 
their pitiless captors, when Dermot MacMurrough arrived, 
and for the first and only time we see mercy exercised at his 
request. The carnage of the now unresisting inhabitants was 
suspended. Dermot expressed great exultation at the arrival 
of Earl Strongbow, and insisted upon paying him at once his 
promised guerdon. He had taken his daughter, Eva, with him 
for that purpose; the marriage ceremony was hastily per- 
formed, and the wedding cortege passed through streets reek- 
ing with the still warm blood of the brave and unhappy 
citizens. 

Inmaediately after the marriage of Strongbow and Eva, 
Dermot and his allies set out on a rapid march to Dublin, 
leaving a small party to garrison Waterford. Roderic had 
collected a large army and encamped at Clondalkin, near 
Dublin ; and Hasculf , the governor of that city, encouraged by 
their presence, revolted against Dermot. Hence the haste of 
the confederate army to reach Dublin ; and as they proceeded 
along the high ridges of the Wicklow mountains in order to 
escape the fortified passes by which their march would have 
been impeded in the valleys, they arrived under the walls of 
Dublin long before their presence there could be calculated 
on. This rapid movement, and the now formidable array of 
the Anglo-Norman army, filled the citizens with consternation, 
and recourse was had to negotiation; the illustrious arch- 
bishop of Dublin, St. Lawrence 'Toole, being commissioned 
to arrange terms of peace with Dermot. While the parley, 
however, was still proceeding in Strongbow 's camp, two of 
the English leaders, Raymond le Grros and Milo de Cogan, 
regardless of the usages of civilized warfare— though some 
say the time for the conference had expired— led their troops 
respectively against the weakest or most neglected parts of the 
fortifications, and obtained an entrance. The inhabitants, 
relying on the negotiations which were going forward, were 



112 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

quite unprepared for this assault, and flying panic stricken, 
were butchered in the most merciless manner. We may con- 
ceive the horror with which St. Laurence, hastening back to 
the city, found its streets filled with carnage. He exposed 
his life in the midst of the massacre, endeavoring to appease 
the fury of the soldiers, and subsequently he had the bodies 
of the slain collected for decent burial, interceded for the 
clergy of the city, and procured the restoration of the books 
and ornaments of which the churches had been plundered. 
Eoderic would appear to have had some skirmishes with the 
enemy for two or three successive days previous to this, and 
then to have withdrawn with his large but ill-organized army ; 
but the Irish annalists, in mentioning the transaction, accuse 
the citizens of Dublin of bad faith, probably for refusing to 
act in concert with the Irish, or for endeavoring to make a 
peace for themselves ; and they also allude to a conflagration 
produced in the city by lightning, which, no doubt, added to 
the panic. *'As judgment upon them," say the Four Masters, 
"MacMurrough and the Saxons acted treacherously towards 
them, and made a slaughter of them in their own fortress, in 
consequence of the violation of their word to the men of 
Ireland." Hasculf and a number of the principal citizens 
made their escape in ships, and repaired to the Hebrides and 
Orkneys, and Eoderic, without striking a blow, drew off his 
army into Meath to sustain 'Eourke, to whom he had given 
the eastern portion of that territory. About the same time 
the English garrison, which had been left in Waterford, was 
attacked and defeated by Cormac MacCarthy, king of Des- 
mond, but we are not told of any consequence which resulted. 
The government of Dublin was now entrusted to Milo de 
Cogan; and Dermot, with his allies, marched into Meath, 
which they ravaged and laid waste with an animosity per- 
fectly diabolical. The churches of Clonard, Kells, Teltown, 
Dowth, Slane, Kilskeery, and Desert-Kieran were plundered 
and burned, and as a matter of course, the towns or villages 
which surrounded them were not treated with greater mercy. 
This predatory incursion was extended into Tir Bruin, or the 
country of the O'Eourkes and O'Eeillys in Leitrim and 
Cavan; and although the monarch himself appears to have 
avoided all collision with the enemy, we are told that at last 
a portion of the latter were twice defeated in Breffny by 
'Eourke. Donnell, prince of Bergia, who had been deposed 
by Eoderic, sided with MacMurrough, as did also DonnelPs 



The Norman Invasion 113 

adherents among the people of East Meath, and some of the 
men of Oriel. 

Alarmed at these events, Roderic foolishly imagined that 
he could arrest the progress of Dermot by threatening him 
with the death of his hostages. He accordingly sent ambas- 
sadors to remonstrate with him for his perfidy in breaking 
his engagements, and for his unprovoked aggressions, and to 
announce that if he did not withdraw his army within his own 
frontier, and dismiss his foreign auxiliaries, the heads of his 
hostages should be forfeited. Dermot treated this menace 
with derision. As far as we can judge of his character, he 
would have preferred the gratification of his revenge to the 
lives of all his children, had they been at stake. And he sent 
back word to Roderic that he would not desist until he had 
fully asserted his claim to the sovereignty of all Ireland, and 
had dispossessed Roderic of his kingdom of Connaught into 
the bargain. 

There is a difference of opinion as to whether Roderic 
fulfilled his threat. Cambrensis, a contemporary writer, in- 
forms us that he did. Keating sa^^s that he would not expose 
himself to such odium as the execution of the hostages would 
entail ; but the Four Masters, who are a much better authority, 
and would not have made the statement without sufficient 
grounds, say that ''the three royal hostages'* were put to 
death at Athlone. These were Conor, the son of Dermot ; 
his grandson (the son of Donnell Kavanagh) ; and the son of 
his foster brother, 'Caellaighe. The act was cruel, but in 
it Roderic did not exceed his strict right ; and the same year 
Tiernan O'Rourke put to death the hostages of East Meath, 
which had rebelled against him. 

Giraldus Cambrensis furnishes some interesting particu- 
lars of a synod held about the close of this year (1170). It 
appears from it that there prevailed in England a barbarous 
custom of selling children as slaves, and that the Irish were 
the principal purchasers in that abominable market. There 
are other authorities also to show this nefarious practice was 
prevalent in England, the twenty-eighth canon of the council 
of London, held in 1102, having been enacted for its prohibi- 
tion. The custom of buying English slaves was held by the 
Irish clergy to be so wicked that, after deliberating on the 
subject, the synod of Armagh pronounced the invasion of Ire- 
land by Englishmen to be a just judgment upon the country 
on account of it, and decreed that any of the English who were 



114 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Hoses 

held as slaves in Ireland should immediately be set free. It 
was a curious and characteristic coincidence that an Irish 
deliberative assembly should by an act of humanity to Eng- 
lishmen, have met the merciless aggressions which the latter 
had just then commenced against this country. 

In the midst of his ambitious and vindictive projects, 
Dermot MacMurrough died at Ferns on the 4th of May, 1171. 
His death, which took place in less than a year after his 
sacrilegious church-burnings in Meath, is described as accom- 
panied by fearful evidence of divine displeasure. He died 
intestate, and without the sacraments of the church. His 
disease was of some unknown and loathsome kind, and was 
attended with insufferable pain, which, acting on the naturally 
savage violence of his temper, rendered him so furious that 
his ordinary attendants were compelled to abandon him ; and 
his body became at once a putrid mass, so that its presence 
above ground could not be endured. Some historians suggest 
that this account of his death may have been the invention 
of enemies; yet it is so consistent with what we know of 
MacMurrough 's character and career, from other sources, as 
to be no wise incredible. He reached the age of eighty-one 
years, and is known in Irish history as Diarmaid-na-Gall, or 
Dermot of the Foreigners. 

On the death of Dermot, Earl Strongbow, regardless of his 
duty as an English subject, got himself proclaimed king of 
Leinster ; and as his marriage with Eva could not under the 
Irish law confer any right of succession, he grounded his claim 
on the engagement made by the late king, when he first agreed 
to undertake his cause. As this was the first step in the estab- 
lishment of English power in Ireland, it is well the reader 
should bear in mind the way it was effected. There was here 
no conquest. The only fighting which the invaders yet had 
was with the Dano-Irish of Wexford, Waterf ord, and Dublin ; 
and against these, as well as in their predatory excursions, 
the Anglo-Normans acted in conjunction with their Irish allies 
in Leinster. They can hardly be said, so far, to have come 
in collision with an Irish army at all, and most certainly, as 
Leland observes, "the power of the nation they did not con- 
tend with. " * * The settlement of a Welsh colony in Leinster, * * 
as the same historian, notwithstanding his strong anti-Irish 
prejudice, continues, "was an incident neither interesting nor 
alarming to any, except, perhaps, a few of most reflection 
and discernment." Even the Irish annalists speak with a 



The Norman Invasion U5 

careless indifference of the event, ''but, had these first 
adventurers conceived that they had nothing more to do but 
to march through the land and terrify a whole nation of timid 
savages by' the glitter of their armor, they must have speedily 
experienced the effects of such romantic madness.*' 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTEK II. 

ST. LAWRENCE O'TOOLE— BKAVERY OF THE NORTHERN PRINCES- 
ENGLISH LAW ESTABLISHED IN IRELAND. 

Fortune thus seemed in many respects to favor Strong- 
bow and his band of Anglo-Norman and Welsh adventurers, 
yet their position was one of considerable embarrassment. 
The king of England was jealous of their success, and indig- 
nant at the slight they had put upon his authority. He was 
also annoyed at finding his own designs against Ireland antici- 
pated by men who were likely to become insolent and trouble- 
some; and he accordingly issued a i^eremptory mandate, 
ordering every English subject then in Ireland to return 
within a certain time, and prohibiting the sending thither of 
any further aid or supplies. Alarmed at this edict, Strongbow 
dispatched Raymond le Gros to Henry with a letter couched 
in the most submissive terms, placing at the king's disposal 
all the lands which he had acquired in Ireland. Henry was 
at the moment absorbed in the difficulties in which the murder 
of St. Thomas a Becket— if not at his command, at least at his 
implied desire, and by his myrmidons— had involved him, and 
he neither deigned to notice the earPs letter, nor paid any 
further attention to the Irish affair for some time, so that 
Strongbow, still tempting fate, continued his course without 
regarding the royal edict. To add to his difficulties, his 
standard was deserted by nearly all his Irish adherents, on 
the death of Dermot, which took place soon after the date of 
the royal mandate ; and during his absence from Dublin that 
city was besieged by a Scandinavian force, which was collected 
by Hasculf, in the Orkneys, and conveyed in sixty ships, under 
the command of a Dane called John the Furious. Milo de 
Cogan, whom Strongbow had left as governor, bravely re- 
pulsed the besiegers, but was near being cut off outside the 
eastern gate, until his brother Richard came to his relief with 
a troop of cavalry, whereupon the Norwegians were defeated 
with great slaughter, John the Furious being slain, and Has- 
culf made captive. The latter was at first reserved for ran- 
som, but on threatening his captors with a more desperate 
attack on a future occasion, they basely put him to death. 

The great archbishop of Dublin, St. Laurence 'Toole, 

117 



118 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

whose illustrious example has consecrated Irish patriotism, 
perceiving the straits to which the Anglo-Normans were 
reduced, and judging rightly that it only required an ener- 
getic effort, for which a favorable moment had arrived, to 
rid the country of the dangerous iutruders, went among the 
Irish princes to rouse them to action. For this purpose 
he proceeded from province to province, addressing the nobles 
and people in spirit-stirring words, and urging the necessity 
for an immediate and combined struggle for independence. 
Emissaries were also sent to Godf red, king of the Isle of Man, 
and to some of the northern islands, inviting co-operation 
against the common enemy. 

Earl Strongbow, becoming aware of the impending danger, 
repaired in haste to Dublin and prepared to defend himself; 
nor was he long there when he saw the city invested on all 
sides by a numerous army. A fleet of thirty ships from the 
isles blocked up the harbor, and the besieged were so effectu- 
ally hemmed in that it was impossible for them to obtain fresh 
supplies of men or provisions. Roderic 'Conor, who com- 
manded in person, and had his own camp at Castleknock, was 
supported by Tiernan O'Rourke and Mnrrongh 'Carroll 
with their respective forces, and St. Laurence was present in 
the camp animating the men, or, as some pretend, though 
very improbably, even bearing arms himself. The Irish 
chiefs, relying on their numbers, contented themselves with 
an active blockade, and for a time their tactics promised to 
be successful, the besieged being reduced to extremities for 
want of food. Strongbow solicited a parley, and requested 
that St. Laurence should be the medium of communication. 
He offered to hold the kingdom of Leinster as the vassal of 
Roderic; but the Irish monarch rejected such terms indig- 
nantly, and required that the invaders should immediately 
surrender the towns of Dublin, "Wexford, and Waterford, and 
undertake to depart from Ireland on a certain day. It is 
generally admitted that under the circumstances the propo- 
sitions of Roderic were merciful, and for awhile it was prob- 
able that they would, however unpalatable, be accepted. 

At this crisis, Donnell Kavanagh, son of the late king of 
Leinster, contrived to penetrate in disguise into the city, 
brought Strongbow the intelligence that his friend Fitz- 
Stephen was, together with his family and a few followers, 
shut up in the Castle of Carrig, near Wexford, where he was 
closely besieged, and must, unless immediately relieved, fall 



The Norman Invasion 119 

into the hands of his exasperated enemies. This sad news 
drove the garrison of Dublin to desperation ; and at the sug- 
gestion of Maurice FitzGerald it was determined that they 
should make a sortie with their whole force, and attempt the 
daring exploit of cutting their way through the besiegers. 
To carry out this enterprise, Strongbow disposed his men in 
the following order: Baymond le Gros, with twenty knights 
on horseback, led the van; to these succeeded thirty knights 
under Milo de Cogan ; and this body was followed by a third, 
consisting of about forty knights, commanded by Strongbow 
himself and FitzGerald; the remainder of their forces, said 
to consist of only 600 men, bringing up the rear. It was 
about three in the afternoon when this well-organized body 
of desperate men sallied forth ; and the Irish army, lulled in 
false security, and expecting a surrender rather than a sortie, 
was taken wholly by surprise. A great number were 
slaughtered at the first onset ; and the panic which was pro- 
duced spreading to the besieging army, a general retreat from 
before the city commenced; so that Roderic, who with many 
of his men was enjoying a bath in the Litfey, had some dif- 
ficulty in effecting his escape. The English, on their side, 
astonished at their own unexpected success, returned to the 
city laden with spoils, and with an unlimited supply of pro- 
visions. 

Strongbow once more committed the government of Dublin 
to Milo de Cogan, and set out with a strong detachment for 
Wexford to relieve FitzStephen ; but after overcoming some 
difficulty in the territory of Idrone, where his march was 
opposed by the local chieftain 'Regan, he learned on ap- 
proaching Wexford that he came too late to assist his friend. 
Carrig Castle had already fallen, and it is said that the 
Wexford men were not very scrupulous on the occasion in 
their treatment of foes who had proved themselves sufficiently 
capable of treachery and cruelty. The story is, that Fitz- 
Stephen and his little garrison were deceived by the false 
intelligence that Dublin had been captured by the Irish army, 
that the English, including Strongbow, FitzGerald, and Ray- 
mond le Gros, had been cut to pieces, and that the only chance 
of safety was in immediate surrender; the Dano-Irish be- 
siegers undertaking to send FitzStephen with his family and 
followers unharmed to England. It is added, that the bishops 
of Wexford and Kildare presented themselves before the 
castle to confirm this false report by a solemn assurance; but 



120 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

this cireumstauee, if not a gTOiindless addition, would only- 
show that a rumor, by which the bishops themselves had been 
deceived, prevailed about the capture of Dublin, a thing not 
at all improbable. False news of a similar kind is sometimes 
circulated in our own times. At all events the stratagem, 
if it was one, succeeded ; and Fitz Stephen on yielding himself 
to his enemies was cast into prison, and some of his followers 
were put to death. Scarcely was this accomplished, when 
intelligence arrived that Strongbow was approaching, and 
that the Wexford men, finding themselves unable to cope with 
him single-handed, and fearing his vengeance, set fire to their 
town, and sought refuge with their prisoners in the little 
island of Beg-Erin, whence they sent word to the earl that 
if he made any attempt to reach them in their retreat they 
would instantly cut off the heads of FitzStephen and the other 
English prisoners. Thus foiled in his purpose, Strongbow 
with a heavy heart directed his course to Waterford, and 
immediately invaded the territory of Ossory, in conjunction 
with Donnell O'Brien. 

During the earl's absence, Tiernan O'Rourke hastily col- 
lected an army of the men of Breffny and Oriel, and made an 
attack on Dublin, but he was repulsed by Milo, and lost his 
son under the walls. With this exception, no attempt was 
made to molest the invaders at a period when they could have 
been so easily annihilated; and intestine wars were carried 
on among the northern tribes, and also between Connaught 
and Thomond, as if there had been no foreign enemy in the 
country, 

Strongbow, on the other side, learnt at Waterford, from 
emissaries whom he had sent to plead his cause with Henry, 
that his own presence for that purpose was indispensable, 
and he accordingly set out in haste for England. He found 
the English monarch at Newnham in Gloucestershire, making 
active preparations for an expedition to Ireland. Henry at 
first refused to admit him to his presence ; but at length suf- 
fered himself to be influenced by the earl's unconditional 
submission, and by the mediation of Hervey of Mountmaurice, 
and consented to accept his homage and oath of fealty, and 
to confirm him in the possession of his Irish acquisitions, with 
the exception of Dublin and the other seaport towns and forts, 
which were to be surrendered to himself. He also restored 
the earl's English estates, which had been forfeited on his 
disobedience to the king's mandate ; but as it were to mark his 



The NoRMAiNT Invasion 121 

displeasure at the whole proceeding of the invasion of Ireland 
by his subjects, he seized the castles of the Welsh lords to 
punish them for allowing the expedition to sail from their 
coasts contrary to his commands. It is probable that in all 
this, hypocrisy and tyranny were the king's ruling motives. 
He hated the Welsh, and took the opportunity to crush them 
still more, and to garrison their castles with his own men. 
These events took place not many months after the murder 
of St. Thomas a Becket, and it is generally admitted that the 
king's expedition to Ireland, if not projected, was at least 
hastened, in order to withdraw public attention from that 
atrocity, and to make a demonstration of his power before the 
country at a moment when his name was covered with the 
odium which the crime involved. 

Henry II., attended by Strongbow, William FitzAdelm de 
Burgo, Humphrey de Bohen, Hugh de Lacy, Eobert Fitz- 
Bernard, and other knights and noblemen, embarked at Mil- 
ford, in Pembrokeshire, with a powerful armament, and 
landed at a place called by the Anglo-Norman chroniclers 
Croch— probably the present Crook— near Waterford, on St. 
Luke's day, October 18th, A. D. 1171. His army consisted, it 
is said, of 500 knights, and about four thousand men-at-arms ; 
but it was probably much more numerous, as it was trans- 
ported, according to the English account, in 400 ships. 

Henry assumed in Ireland the plausible policy which 
seemed so natural to him. He pretended to have come rather 
to protect the people from the aggressions of his own sub- 
jects than to acquire any advantage for himself; but at the 
same time, as a powerful yet friendly sovereign, to receive the 
homage of vassal princes, and to claim feudal jurisdiction in 
their country. It is impossible, of course, to reconcile pre- 
tenses so inconsistent in themselves ; but they served the pur- 
pose for which they were invented. He put on an air of 
extreme affability, accompanied by a great show of dignity, 
and paraded a brilliant and well disciplined army with all 
possible pomp and display of power. 

The Irish, on the other hand, seemed at a loss what to 
think or how to act. An event had occurred for which they 
were not prepared by any parallel case in their history. They 
neither understood the character or the system of their new 
foes. Perpetually immersed in local feuds, they had not 
gained ground either in military or national spirit since their 
old wars with the Danes. The men of one province cared little 



122 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

what misfortune befell those of another, provided their own 
territory was safe. Single, each of them had been hitherto 
able to cope with foes as they were accustomed to ; but where 
combined action could alone suffice there was nothing to unite 
them; they had no sentiments in common— no center, no rally- 
ing principles. 

MaCarthy, king of Desmond, was the first Irish prince to 
pay homage to Henry. Marching from Waterford to Lis- 
more, and thence to Cashel, Henry was met near the latter 
town by Donnell 'Brien, king of Thomond, who swore fealty 
to him, and surrendered to him his city of Limerick. After- 
wards there came in succession to do homage, MacGilla Pat- 
rick, prince of Ossory; O'Phelan, prince of the Deisies, and 
various other chieftains of Leath Mogha. All were most 
courteously received ; many of them were of course not a 
little dazzled by the splendor of Henry's court and his array 
of steel-clad knights ; some were perhaps glad to acknowledge 
a sovereign powerful enough to deliver them from the petty 
warfare with which they were harassed, and exhausted, but 
none of them understood Anglo-Norman capacity, or could 
have imagined that in paying homage to Henry as a liege 
lord they were conveying to him the absolute dominion and 
ownership of their ancestral territories. 

So well was it known in Ireland that Henry disapproved 
of the invasion of that country by Strongbow and the other 
adventurers, that the people of AVexford, who had got Fitz- 
Stephen into their hands, pretended to make a merit of their 
own exploit, and sent a deputation to Henry on his arrival 
to deliver to him the captive knight as one who had made war 
without his sovereign's permission. Henry kept up the farce 
by retaining FitzStephen for some time in chains and then 
restored him to liberty. 

From Cashel Henry returned to Waterford, and then pro- 
ceeded to Dublin where he was received in great state, and 
where a temporary pavilion, constructed in the Irish fashion 
of twigs or wicker work, was erected for him outside the 
walls, no building in the city being spacious enough to accom- 
modate his court. Here he remained to pass the festival of 
Christmas, and such of the Irish as were attracted thither by 
curiosity were entertained by him with a degree of magnifi- 
cence and urbanity well calculated to win their admiration. 
Among the Irish princes who paid their homage to the Eng- 
lish king in Dublin were 'Carroll of Oriel, and the veteran 



The Norman Invasion 123 

O'Rourke; but the monarch Eoderic, though thus abandoned 
by his oldest and most powerful ally, the chief of Breffny, 
as he had been already by so many others of his vassals, still 
continued to maintain an independent attitude. He collected 
an army on the banks of the Shannon, and seemed to resolve 
to defend the frontiers of his kingdom of Connaught to the 
last ; thus regaining by this bold and dignified demeanor some 
at least of the esteem and sympathy which by his former 
weakness of character he had forfeited. Henry, whose object 
appeared to be not fighting but parade did not march against 
the Irish monarch, but sent De Lacy and FitzAdelm to treat 
with him; and Eoderic, on his own sovereignty being recog- 
nized, was, it is said, induced to pay homage to Henry through 
his ambassadors, as it was customary in that age for one king 
to pay to another and more potent sovereign. We have no 
Irish authority, however, for this act of submission ; and as to 
the northern princes, they still withheld all recognition of 
the invaders' sway. 

At Henry's desire, a synod was held at Cashel in the be- 
ginning of this year (1172). It was presided over by Chris- 
tian, bishop of Lismore, who was then apostolic legate, and 
was attended by St. Laurence of Dublin, Catholicus 'Duffy, 
of Tuam, and Donald O'Hullucan, of Cashel, with their 
suffragan bishops, together with abbots, archdeacons, etc.; 
Ralph, archdeacon of Landaff, and Nicholas, a royal chaplain, 
being present on the part of the king. It was decreed at this 
synod that the prohibition of marriage within the canonical 
degrees of consanguinity and affinity should be more strictly 
enforced ; that children should be catechised before the church 
door, and baptized in the fonts in those churches appointed 
for that purpose; that tithes of all the produce of the land 
should be paid to the clergy; that church lands and other 
ecclesiastical property should be exempt from the exactions 
of laymen in the shape of periodical entertainment and livery, 
etc., and that the clergy should not be liable to any share of 
the eric or blood fine levied on the kindred of a man guilty of 
homicide. There was also a decree regulating wills, by which 
one-third of a man*s movable property, after payment of his 
debts, was to be left to his legitimate children, if he had any; 
another to his wife, if she survived; and the remaining third 
for his funeral obsequies. 

These decrees constitute the boasted reform of the Irish 
Church introduced by Henry II. It will be observed that they 



124 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

indicate no trace of doctrinal error to be corrected, or even 
of gross abuse in discipline, unless it be the too general use of 
private baptism, and the celebration of marriage within the 
prohibited degrees, which at that time extended to very remote 
relationships. But the subject of this synod leads us to an 
incident of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland which has 
been a fertile source of controversy— namely, the so-called 
subjection of Ireland to the dominion of the king of England, 
by the bulls of Adrian IV. and Alexander III. 

The temiooral power exercised by the popes in the middle 
ages opens up a question too general for discussion here. It 
is enough for us to know that modern investigation has re- 
moved much of the misrepresentation by which it was assailed. 
Irrespective of religious considerations, we see in the Eoman 
pontiffs of that period the steadfast friends of order and 
enlightenment; in their power the bulwark of the oppressed 
people against feudal tyranny; of civilization against bar- 
barism ; and we should consider well the circumstances under 
which they acted, and the received opinions of the age, before 
we condemn these Viceregents of Christ for proceedings in 
which their authority was invoked in the temporal affairs of 
nations. If this authority was sometimes perverted to their 
own purposes by ambitious kings, or its exercise surreptitious- 
ly obtained, that was not the fault of the popes nor of the 
principle ; as we shall find illustrated in the case we are now 
about to consider. 

Nicholas Breakspere, an Englishman, was elected pope 
under the title of Adrian IV., December 3d, 1154, and Henry 
II., who had come to the throne of England about a month 
earlier, sent soon after to congratulate his countryman on his 
elevation. This embassy was followed by another insidious 
one, the object of which was to represent to the pope that 
religion and morality were reduced to the lowest ebb in the 
neighboring island of Ireland ; that society there was torn to 
pieces by factions, and plunged in the most barbarous ex- 
cesses; that there was no respect for spiritual authority; and 
that the king of England solicited the sanction of his Holiness 
to visit that unhappy country in order to restore discipline 
and morals, and to compel the Irish to make a respectable 
provision for the church, such as already existed in England. 
This negotiation, which indicates how long the idea of in- 
vading Ireland was entertained by the English king, was 
entrusted by Henry to John of Salisbury, chaplain to Theo- 



TfiE Norman Tnvabion 125 

bald, archbishop of Canterbury, who urged, according to an 
opinion then received, that Constantine the Great had made 
a donation of all Christian islands to the successor of Peter; 
that, therefore, the pope, as owner of the island of Ireland, 
had the power to place it under the dominion of Henry; and 
that he was bound to exercise that power in the interests of 
religion and morality. 

A hostile authority confesses that ''the popes were in gen- 
eral superior to the age in which they lived ' ' ; but we have 
no right to expect that, on a subject of this temporal and 
political nature, they should have been so far in advance of 
the ideas of their times as to anticipate the political knowl- 
edge and discoveries of subsequent ages. We must also recol- 
lect that, however exaggerated the statements made to Adrian 
about Ireland may have been, they were not wholly without 
foundation. It is not consistent with human nature that 
society should not have been disorganized more or less by the 
state of turbulence in which we know, from our authentic 
history, that this country was so long plunged at that period. 
It was precisely the period when the moral character of Ire- 
land had suffered most in the estimation of foreign nations. 
St. Bernard's vivid picture of the vices and abuses against 
which St. Malachy had to struggle, in one part of Ireland, had 
only just then been presented to the world. St. Malachy was 
not long dead, and his reforms were less known than the 
abuses which had so loudly called for them. The recent efforts 
of the Irish prelates and clergy to restore discipline in the 
church, and piety and morals among the people, had only 
begun to produce their effects. Vices may have been as 
prevalent in other countries, but this did not render Ireland 
stainless. In fact, although Pope Adrian IV. had been the 
pupil of a learned monk, named Marianus, at Paris, and had 
other sources of information on the subject, we are not to 
wonder that he should have formed a low estimate of the 
state of religion and morals in Ireland, and lent a credulous 
ear to the exaggerated representations of Henry's emissary. 
Little knowing of the mind of the ambitious Idng, he, there- 
fore, addressed to him his memorable letter, or bull, which 
was accompanied by a gold ring enriched with a precious 
emerald, as a sign of investiture. 

The importance of this bull in our history has been mon- 
strously exaggerated. It can have had little, if any, influence 
on the destinies of Ireland. After the bull had been obtained 



126 Ireland^s Crown of Thorns and Roses 

on a false pretense and to give a color to an ambitious design, 
a council of state was held in England to consider the pro- 
jected invasion; but partly through deference to his mother, 
the empress, who was opposed to it, and partly from the 
pressure of other affairs, the project was for the present 
abandoned by Henry, and the papal document deposited in 
the archives of Winchester. Thirteen years after we have 
seen Dermot MacMurrough at the feet of Henry, imploring 
English aid. A few years more pass away, and we behold 
the English monarch making a triumphant progress through 
Leinster, and receiving the submission of the kings of Des- 
mond and Thomond, and Ossory, and Breffny, and Oriel, if 
not that of Roderic himself; yet, not one word is breathed, 
all this time, about the grant from Adrian IV. We have no 
ground for supposing that the existence of that grant was 
even known to the Irish prelates, who, following the example 
of their respective princes, also paid their homage, and 
assembled at the call of Henry in the sjniod of Cashel; nor 
does one word about it appear to have transpired among the 
clergy or people of Ireland until it was promulgated, together 
with a confirmatory bull of Alexander III. at a synod held in 
Waterford in 1175, some twenty years after the grant had 
been originally made, and when the success of the invasion 
had been an accomplished fact. Some Irish historians have 
questioned the authenticity of Pope Adrian's bull; but there 
appears to be no solid reason for doubt upon the subject. 
Others, like Dr. Keating, assign, as a ground for the right 
assumed by the pope, a tradition that Donough, son of Brian 
Borumha, had made a present of the crown of Ireland to the 
reigning pontiff, when he went on a pilgrimage to Rome about 
the year 1064 ; but this story merits no attention. The equally 
fabulous donation of Constantino the Grreat, even if it had 
been made, could not have included Ireland, to which the 
power of the Roman empire never had extended. Irish 
Catholic historians have always been sufficiently free in their 
animadversions on the ''English pope," as Adrian IV. is 
styled, for his grant; but a consideration of the real circum- 
stances, as we have endeavored to explain them, would show 
how unwarrantable such severity has been. The character of 
that pontiff was altogether too exalted to afford any ground 
for supposing that he acted from an unworthy motive. We 
have no reason to think that his intentions were other than the 
religious ones he expresses, or that they were not wholly 



The Norman Invasion 127 

opposed to the ambitious views of the English monarch; and 
we know how utterly the conditions specified in the bull were 
disregarded in the Anglo-Norman invasion and subsequent 
govermnent of Ireland. Some show of fulfilling these condi- 
tions was necessary, and hence the pretended reform of the 
Irish Church, which the synod of Cashel was summoned to 
effect. We have enumerated the decrees of that synod to 
show in what the reform consisted. The prelates assembled 
at Cashel, and acting only from a sense of duty, joined in 
a report or wrote letters for transmission to the then pope, 
Alexander III., and it would appear that whatever faults were 
laid to the charge of the Irish were, in this document or 
documents, neither diminished or excused. The archdeacon 
of Llandaff accompanied this report by a more ample one, 
in which the representations as to the vices of the people, 
the power and magnanimity of the king, and the salutary 
effect which his authority had already produced, were no 
doubt highly colored. Just as Adrian's letter had been 
granted to Henry before that prince's vicious character had 
been developed, and before he had begun to wage war on the 
church in England; so had the same unprincipled and hypo- 
critical monarch contrived to expiate his crimes in the eyes of 
the pope, and to exhibit himself as an humble son of the 
church before Alexander was called upon to interpose in his 
favor. Hence, appeased by the king's submission, which was 
the humblest and seemingly the most contrite possible, and 
with the bull of his predecessor, Adrian, and the reports 
he had just received from Ireland before him, the sovereign 
pontiff was induced to confirm the former grant. At the 
same time he issued three other letters, dated September 20th, 
one addressed to Henry himself, approving of his proceed- 
ings; another to "the kings and princes of Hibernia," com- 
mending them for their "voluntary" and "prudent" sub- 
mission to Henry, admonishing them to preserve unshaken 
the fealty which they had sworn to him, and expressing joy 
at the prospect of peace and tranquillity for their country, 
"with God's help, through the power of the same king." 
The third letter was addressed to the four archbishops of 
Ireland and their suffragans; and in it the pope refers to 
the information which he had received from "other reliable 
sources," as well as from their communications relative to 
"the enormous vices with which the Irish people were in- 
fected "j he designates that people as "barbarous, rude, and 



128- Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ignorant of the divine law"; rejoices at the improvement 
which had already begun to manifest itself in their manners ; 
and exhorts and commands the prelates to use all diligence 
in promoting and maintaining a reform so happily com- 
menced, and in taking care that the fidelity plighted to the 
king should not be violated. Such is the history of those 
famous papal grants, of which sectarian industry, as well as 
wounded national feelings, has greatly magnified the im- 
portance, and misrepresented the origin. 

Besides the synod of Cashel, which was invoked for 
ecclesiastical purposes, a council was held about this time at 
Lismore, in which it was decreed that the laws and customs 
of England should be introduced into Ireland, for the use 
of the British subjects settling there. The native Irish, 
however, still lived under their own laws and traditional 
usages; but the protection and benefits of English law were 
extended in process of time to five Irish septs or families, 
who in the law documents of the period are called the ''five 
bloods. ' ' These were the 'Neills of Ulster, the 'Melaghlins 
of Meath, the 'Conors of Connaught, the O'Briens of Tho- 
mond, and the MacMurroughs of Leinster. It was several 
hundred years later, namely, in the reign of James I., when 
English law was extended to Ireland in general, and even 
then it was found necessary to modify it for the purpose of 
adaptation. 

Henry made a new grant of the principality of Leinster 
to Strongbow, subject to the feudal condition of homage and 
military service. He appointed Hugh de Lacy justiciary of 
Ireland, and granted him the territory of Meath, to be held 
by similar feudal service. A large territory in the south of 
Ireland was conferred about this time on FitzGerald, the 
ancestor of the earls of Desmond ; and thus was commenced, 
on a large scale, that wholesale confiscation by which the land 
of Ireland was taken indiscriminately from its ancient pos- 
sessors, and granted, without any show of title, to the Anglo- 
Norman adventurers. This was only a repetition of what 
had taken place in England itself on the conquest of that 
country by William the Norman. The Saxons incurred the 
contempt of their invaders from the facility with which they 
suffered themselves to be subdued, and their property was 
everywhere confiscated; so that the Saxon element in the 
English character affords, historically speaking, no ground 
for national boasting. The descendants of the plunderers, 



The Norman Invasion 120 

equally rapacious, found a new field for spoliation in Ireland, 
and carried out their old system there with a total disregard of 
both mercy and justice. Subduing a territory generally sig- 
nified among the ancient Irish only a transitory act of 
plunder or the exacting of hostages. With the Anglo-Nor- 
mans of the days of Henry II. and of aftertimss, to obtain 
superiority of power in a country, whether by conquest or 
otherwise, signified, on the contrary, the complete transfer to 
themselves of every foot of land in the country, and the 
plunder, and, if possible, extermination of its ancient popula- 
tion. 

Nor did the Church of Ireland fare better than the laity, 
notwithstanding the provision of Pope Adrian's bull, that it 
should be preserved intact and inviolate. Griraldus Cam- 
brensis, describing what he witnessed himself, and certainly 
without any friendly leaning towards the Irish, says : * * The 
miserable clergy are reduced to beggary in the island. The 
cathedral churches mourn, having been robbed by the afore- 
said persons (the leading adventurers) and others along with 
them, or who came over after them, of the lands and ample 
estates which had been formerly granted to them faithfully 
and devoutly. And thus the exalting of the church has been 
changed into despoiling or plundering of the church." And 
again he confesses that ''while we (the Anglo-Normans) con- 
ferred nothing on the church of Christ in our new principality, 
we not only did not think it worthy of any important bounty, 
or of due honor; but even, having immediately taken away 
the lands and possessions, have exerted ourselves either to 
mutilate or abrogate its former diginities and ancient privi- 
leges. ' ' 

Besides the princely rewards bestowed on Hugh de Lacy, 
as already mentioned, he was also appointed lord constable; 
Strongbow is supposed to have borne the dignity of lord mar- 
shal ; the office of high steward or seneschal was conferred on 
Sir Bertram de Vernon; and Sir Theobald Walter, ancestor 
of the earls of Ormonde, was appointed to the then high office 
of king's butler, whence his descendants derived their family 
name. By the creation of these and other offices, the king 
organized a system of colonial government in Ireland. 

Intercourse with England having been for a long while 
interrupted by tempestuous weather, Henry, while at Wex- 
ford, whither he had removed from Dublin, at length received 
alarming intelligence, to the effect that an investigation rela- 



130 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

tive to tlie murder of St. Thomas a Becket was proceeding by 
the pope's orders in Normandy, and that if he did not speedily 
appear there to defend himself, his dominions were threat- 
ened with an interdict. He accordingly prepared to depart 
from Ireland without waiting to complete his arrangements 
there, and sailed on Easter Monday, April 17th. On landing 
the same day in Wales, he went as a pilgrim to St. David's 
church, and thence hastened to Normandy, where he humbled 
himself in the presence of the papal legates and of the bishops 
and barons; sparing no humiliation to purge himself of his 
crimes in the eyes of the sovereign pontiff, who thus, as we 
have already seen, became reconciled to him. 

The city of Dublin was granted by Henry to the inhabi- 
tants of Bristol, and Hugh de Lacy left as governor, with 
Maurice FitzGerald and Eobert FitzStephen to assist him, 
each of the three having a guard of twenty knights. The city 
of Waterford was given in charge to Humphrey de Bohen, 
who had under him Robert FitzBernard and Hugh de Grunde- 
ville, with a company of twenty knights, while Wexford was 
committed to William FitzAdelm, whose lieutenants were 
Philip de Hastings and Philip de Breuse, with a similar guard. 
Henry also ordered strong castles to be built without delay in 
these towns ; and thus after a six months ' stay in Ireland, did 
he abandon that unhappy country as a prey to a host of 
greedy, upstart adventurers, whom he enriched with its spoils, 
that they might have an interest in defending their common 
plunder. 

(England had now established her power in Ireland. We 
shall not follow her course during the reign of her various 
sovereigns from the twelfth to the eighteenth century, for 
these were troublous times in Ireland, illumined, no doubt, 
by many acts of daring and self-sacrifice on the part of her 
devoted sons, notably by the O'Sullivans and O'Briens of 
the South, and the princely O'Neills and O'Donnells of the 
North, but nevertheless England continued to hold her own 
by the application of her penal laws and other iniquitous 
enactments. We shall take up the thread of Ireland's history 
in 1782, the period made glorious by the abilities and patriot- 
ism of the immortal Henry Grattan, preceded by a complete 
account of the Wexford rebellion, which was forced upon the 
country as an excuse for the passing of the Act of Union.— 
Compilers.) 




REV. P. ¥. KAVANAUGII, O. S. F. 



SECTION III. 



THE RISING OF '98 



BY 



REV. P. F. KAVANAUGH, O. S. F. 



CONTAINING 



HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF WEXFORD— THE BATTLES OF ROSS, 

OULART, AND VINEGAR HILL— SKETCHES OF THE WEXFORD 

LEADERS — FATHERS JOHN AND MICHAEL MURPHY — 

ATROCITIES OF THE ORANGEMEN IN WEXFORD— 

EXAMPLES OF IRISH HEROISM 

AND GENEROSITY 



131 



I 



THE RISING OF '98. 

BY REV. P. F. KAVANAUGH, O. S. F. 



CHAPTER I. 

DESCRIPTION OF WEXFORD AND ITS PEOPLE — MAKING INFORMERS — 
BURNING OF HOUSES AND OTHER PERSECUTIONS. 

While the insurrection of 1798 manifested itself in a series 
of feeble and desultory attempts in the northern counties of 
Leinster, which the Government found little difficulty in 
repressing, their attention was imperatively called to its out- 
break in another district, in the most southern county in the 
same province, ■ where it hurst forth with a violence as great 
as it was unexpected. Wexford was the stage upon which 
the last and most thrilling scene of the tragedy was to be 
enacted. So little apprehension was entertained by the 
authorities of any serious disturbance in that county that, in 
addition to the recently-embodied yeomanry corps, only about 
five hundred of the regular army had been stationed there- 
Soon, however, the whole available military power of England, 
under her ablest generals, was to be gathered together within 
its narrow limits— a force greater than in after years sufficed 
to overthrow the conqueror of Europe upon the plains of 
Waterloo. 

Before entering into the details of this remarkable strug- 
gle, and the events that immediately preceded it, we deem it 
not amiss to furnish our readers with a brief description of 
that county and its inhabitants. 

Mr. T. D. McGee, in his excellent "History of Ireland," 
thus expresses himself on the subject: *' Wexford, geograph- 
ically, is a peculiar comity, and its people are a peculiar 
people. The county fills up the southeastern corner of the 
island, with the sea south and east, the Eiver Barrow to the 
west, and the woods and mountains of Carlow and Wicklow 
to the north. It is about fifty miles long by twenty-four broad ; 
the surface undulating and rising into numerous groups of 
detached hills, two or more of which are generally visible 
from each conspicuous summit. Almost in the midst flows 

133 



134 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

tlie River Slaney, springing from a lofty Wicklow peak, which 
sends down, on its northern slope, the better known River 
Liffey. On the estuary of the Slaney, some seventy miles 
south of Dublin, stands the county town, the traveler jour- 
neying to which, by the usual route then taken, passed in 
succession through Arklow, Gorey, Ferns, Enniscorthy, and 
other places of less consequence, though familiar enough to 
the fiery records of 1798. Northwestward, the only road in 
those days from Carlow to Kilkenny crossed the Blackstairs 
at ScoUagh Gap, entering the county at Newtownbarry, the 
ancient Bunclody ; westward, some twenty miles, on the River 
Barrow, stands New Ross, often mentioned in this history, 
the road from which to the county town passes through Scul- 
labogue Taghmon (Ta'mon), the former at the foot of Car- 
rick-byrne rock, the latter at the base of what is rather 
hyperbolically called 'the mountain of Forth.' South and 
west of the town, towards the estuary of Waterford, lie the 
Baronies of Forth and Bargy, a greater part of the popula- 
tion of which, even within our own time, si3oke the language 
Chaucer and Spencer wrote, and retained many of the char- 
acteristics of their Saxon, Flemish, and Cambrian ancestors. 
Through this singular district lay the road towards Duncan- 
non fort, on Waterford harbor, with branches running off to 
Bannow, Ballyhack, and Dunbrody." 

The Wexford people can hardly be called a Celtic race. 
The surnames of Lacy, Prendergast, Fitzgerald, Devereux, 
Whitty, Walsh, Synnot, Furlong, Harvey, Boxwell, and Brown 
indicate their descent from Norman, Welsh, and Flemish 
ancestors ; while such names as Cornick, Godkin, and Lambert 
remind us of the latest addition to the foreign element in the 
time of the redoubted Cromwell. The Celtic element, if we 
judge by the far greater frequency of such names as the above, 
forms but a small proportion of the population. The Irish 
language has long since wholly disappeared, and even such 
unmistakenly Irish names as are yet found have dropped the 
ancient prefixes of 0' and Mac. 

It is strange, indeed, that such a population should have 
offered to the English the fiercest and most determined resist- 
ance they ever encountered in Ireland, while the people of 
the purely Celtic counties "made no sign," but remained sunk 
in disgraceful apathy, while the fortunes of their native coun- 
try hung trembling in the balance. The population of Wex- 
ford, in 1798, was, according to Mr. Bushels estimate, 132,912 






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The Rising of '98 135 

inhabitants. That of the town of Wexford itself was upwards 
of 9,000 souls. Others have estimated the entire population 
at 150,000, which I judge to be nearer the truth. Treating of 
the social condition of the county, Mr. Hay makes the ensuing 
observation: ''The county of Wexford had long been re- 
markable for the peaceful demeanor of its inhabitants, and 
their good behavior and industry have been held out as an 
exemplar for other parts of Ireland. So little and so seldom 
infested with disturbance and riots of any kind, that an 
execution for a capital crime rarely took place there ; and, in 
the calendar of its criminals, it has as few on record as any 
part either of Great Britain or Ireland. This county bore 
such a reputation that landed property was considered of 
higher value in it than in many other parts of the country, 
purchasers not hesitating to advance some years' rental for 
lands in the county of Wexford than for the like in most other 
parts of Ireland." But as Mr. Hay was himself a Wexford 
man, and might not unreasonably be suspected of partiality 
for his native county, I shall take the liberty of quoting a few 
extracts from the work of an English gentleman, published at 
a later period, in which he treats of the same subject. After 
lauding at some length the superior civilization of the Wex- 
ford people, he asks, *'To what can this great difference in 
the appearance of the country, in the state of cultivation, in 
the progress of civilization, in comfort, in cleanliness, in order 
and good conduct be owing— for this county is in Ireland?'* 
This is an Englishman ; he naturally attributes it to their de- 
scent, derived from Strongbow's little army, all natives of 
Pembrokeshire, which, though situate in Wales, he asserts to- 
have had a Saxon population. In continuation he remarks: 
*'In the baronies of Forth and Bargy, at this day, it is dif- 
ficult to see any marked difference between the appearance 
of the country or the people and England or its population. 
There are the same cleanliness, order, and neatness. Great 
industry prevails amongst a peaceable and well-disposed 
people. . . . Comfort and contentment, the rewards of 
industry, are everywhere seen." We have thought it fitting 
to furnish our readers with the foregoing extracts from an 
authority that even those who would aif ord but slight credence 
to statements less evidently impartial must respect, as a con- 
clusive answer to the calumnies heaped upon a peaceable and 
well-disposed people by certain authors whose works have 
obtained a wide circulation. We ourselves in our da^s^ have 



136 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

been intimately acquainted with some of those men described 
by Musgrave and Maxwell, and other writers of their bigoted 
and narrow-minded class, as ferocious and ignorant peasants 
—and we must say that we have never met with finer speci- 
mens of a manly and intelligent race. Amidst the numerous 
Catholic peasantry of Wexford there abode a great number 
of small landed proprietors. The majority of these were good 
landlords, and often kind neighbors, willing to live on terms 
of amity with their humbler fellow-countrymen, although they 
differed from them in religious tenets. It is true that even 
these, well-disposed as they were, regarded the Catholics as 
a far inferior class, and were little inclined to admit them to 
any degree of social equality. This class included men of the 
highest standing in the county, and of the most extensive 
landed possessions. But, unhappily for the peace of the 
country, there existed at the time another class, which rather 
stood on the boundary of the aristocratic circle than fairly 
within its area, whose principles and practice were essentially 
different. 

For the most part meanly born, or if well born of ruined 
fortune and of spendthrift habits, they had emerged from 
obscurity into baneful prominence by taking advantage of the 
encouragement given by the Government to all who were 
willing to become their instruments in hunting down the ad- 
herents of the ancient creed. The men, thus encouraged by 
Government, were violent in their denunciations of Papists— 
untiringly energetic in the discovery of the disloyal schemes 
which, it seems, these unfortunate Papists were always hatch- 
ing. Every post carried long epistles from these worthies to 
the authorities of the Castle, containing accounts of the dis- 
coveries they had made of conspiracies, formed by the same 
Papists, of course, having for their end the overthrow of the 
British Government in his Majesty's kingdom of Ireland. In 
every private circle to which they were admitted, and in every 
public meeting at which they assisted, they poured forth re- 
vilings, accusations, and threats against the objects of their 
hatred. Of this class Mr. Hay speaks in the following terms : 

''Slaves to their superiors, but tyrants to their inferiors, 
these needy adventurers became the tools of prevailing power ; 
justices of peace were selected from this class, and these, by 
this degree of elevation (certainly to them the station is an 
exalted one), think themselves raised to a level of equality 
with the most respectable gentlemen of the countrv. But their 



The Rising of '98 I37 

ignorance is so preposterous, and their behavior so assuming, 
that men of education, talents, and fortune are induced to 
withhold themselves from a situation they would otherwise 
grace, as it might oblige them to confer with other fellows with 
whom they would not by any means hold communion or keep 
company. Thus are the very men who ought to be the mag- 
istrates of the country, and who would cheerfully accept the 
oflfice, deterred from holding commissions of the peace ; while 
the justice and police of the community are left to ignorant 
presuming and intemperate upstarts, devoid of all qualifica- 
tion and endowment, except that alone, if it may be termed 
such, of unconditional submission and obedience to the con- 
trolling nod of their boasted patrons. If they faithfully ad- 
here to this, they may go all lengths to raise their conse- 
quence, and enhance their estimation with the multitude. 
These creatures have, therefore, the effrontery to push them- 
selves forward on every occasion, and after a series of 
habitual acts of turpitude, whenever an opportunity offers 
itself, they become the scourges and firebrands of the coun- 
try." 

Thus it was that the Government, instead of treating these 
men as disturbers of the public peace, sowers of discord, 
hatred, and suspicion amongst a people who had hitherto lived 
in some degree of peace and harmony, evinced its approbation 
of their conduct by bestowing upon them honors which it 
denied to worthier men, and arming them with authority to 
carry into execution all their nefarious schemes. Besides 
being vested with the magisterial power, they generally were 
appointed to the command of a corps of yeomanry ; and at the 
head of these myrmidons they roamed through the country to 
the terror of the unfortunate inhabitants, whose lives and 
properties were now wholly at their mercy, since the Act of 
Indemnity had freed them from all danger of being called to 
account for their excesses. In their train followed a number 
of vile satelites who were at all times prepared to swear to 
the guilt of anyone whom their employers deemed to consider 
disloyal. Orangemen themselves, they claimed for the mem- 
bers of the society to which they belonged, a species of 
monopoly in loyalty, so that outside their unhallowed circle 
there was no safety for any man. Liberal Protestant gen- 
tlemen were, in their eyes, as much objects of suspicion and 
hatred as the Papists themselves. 

And it is but fair to say that Protestant gentlemen were 



138 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

found virtuous enougli to earn the detestation of such vile 
men, whose hatred was their highest eulogy. 

But the liberal magistrates, being aware that the course 
pursued by the persecutors was approved and sanctioned by 
the Government, deemed it both useless and dangerous to 
interfere. Had they entertained any doubt upon the subject, 
it would have been wholly dissijDated by an incident which 
took place during this period— the arrest and imprisonment 
of Messrs. Colclough and Harvey, whose sense of justice, 
stronger than their prudence, led them openly to denounce 
what they deemed the most cruel and wicked oppression. 
Some persons may be inclined to condemn the silence of others 
at such a time as cowardly and guilty, but not all men have 
courage to advocate the cause of the oppressed when tyranny, 
armed with irresistible power, it seated upon the tribunal. 
The actual force of these instruments of a cruel policy might 
be in itself contemptible, but the sanction of the law and the 
whole strength of the Government rendered them truly for- 
midable. At a later period it was thought prudent to restrain, 
and even to punish them, but for the time they were useful, 
and none might presume to interfere with or thwart their 
proceedings till their task was completed, and the people, 
maddened with oppression, rose as one man to shake a yoke 
that galled them beyond endurance. To discover and to hunt 
down the members of the United Irish Society was the object 
to which they chiefly directed their efforts. To discover them 
they needed informers, and in case these were not at hand, 
they undertook to make them. In this species of manufacture 
they were skillful workmen. The pitch-cap, the scourge, and 
the rope of the executioner were the instruments they em- 
ployed. Mr. Alexander, a respectable Protestant inhabitant 
of Ross, gives us an account of the tortures inflicted upon two 
men named Driscoll and Fitzpatrick, in order to compel them 
to act this infamous part. The first-named of these men 
was half-strangled three times, and flogged four times, to force 
him to swear informations, but continued, notwithstanding, 
steadfast in his refusal to do what was required of him. The 
other man, Fitzpatrick, a poor village schoolmaster, old and 
infirm, was engaged in teaching his little school when a mag- 
istrate entered and tendered to him the oath of allegiance. 
The poor man, having taken the oath with great willingness, 
was informed by his visitor that in further proof of his loyalty 
he must swear to the whereabouts of all the pikes and the 



The Rising of '98 139 

owners of them iii his neighborhood of which he had any 
knowledge. In vain he protested that he knew nothing about 
pikes or insurgents, and consequently could not, without per- 
jury, swear to what he had no knowledge of. His protesta- 
tions were of no avail. He was forthwith conveyed to Ross, 
and there flogged with great severity, of which flogging Mr. 
Alexander was a witness, and '4t was not (he adds) with dry 
eyes, that I saw the punishment inflicted on this humble 
pioneer of literature. ' ' 

These barbarities became of such frequent occurrence that 
the terror-stricken people abandoned their houses and sought 
refuge in the open fields. Concerning the burning of houses 
and the forcing of people by torture to become informers, Mr. 
Hay makes the following remarks : 

' ' The proclamation of the county of Wexford having given 
greater scope to the ingenuity of magistrates to devise means 
of quelling all symptoms of rebellion, as well as of using every 
exertion to procure discoveries, they soon fell to burning of 
houses wherein pikes or other offensive weapons were dis- 
covered, no matter how brought there ; but they did not stop 
here, for the dwellings of suspected persons, and those from 
which any of the inhabitants were found absent at night, were 
also consumed. This circumstance of absence from the houses 
very generally prevailed through the country, although there 
were the strictest orders forbidding it. This was occasioned 
at first, as was before observed, from the apprehension of 
the Orangemen, but afterwards proceeded from the actual 
experiences of torture by the people from the yeomen and 
magistrates. Some, too, abandoned their homes from fear of 
being whipped, if on being apprehended confessions satisfac- 
tory to the magistrates could neither be given or extorted, and 
this infliction many persons seemed to fear more than death 
itself. Many unfortunate men, who were taken in their houses, 
were strung up as it were to be hanged, but were let down 
now and then to try if strangulation would oblige them to 
become informers. After these and the like experiences, sev- 
eral persons languished for some time, and at length perished 
in consequence of them. Smiths and carpenters, whose assist- 
ance was considered indispensable in the fabrication of pikes, 
were pointed out on evidence of their trades as the first and 
fittest objects of torture. But the sagacity of some magis- 
trates became at length so acute, from habit and exercise, that 
they discerned a United Irishman even at the first glance, and 



140 Ireland's Ckown of Thorns and Roses 

their zeal never suffered any person whom they deigned to 
honor with such distinction to pass off without convincing 
proof of their attention. Many innocent persons were thus 
taken up (continues the same author) while peaceably en- 
gaged in their own private concerns, walking along the road 
or passing through the market in the several towns, without 
any previous accusation, but in consequence of military whim, 
or the caprice of magisterial loyalty ; and those who had been 
at market, and passing by unnoticed, had the news of a public 
exhibition to bring home, for the unfortunate victims thus 
seized upon were instantly subjected to the torture of public 
whipping. People of timid dispositions therefore avoided 
going to market, fearing that they might be forced to display 
the same spectacle. Provisions, of course, became dear, for 
want of the usual supply in the market towns ; and the mili- 
tary, to redress this evil, went out into the country and brought 
in what they wanted, at what price they pleased, the owners 
thinking themselves well treated if they got but half the value 
of their goods ; and, in case of their second visit, happy if they 
escaped unhurt, which, however, was not always the case, and 
thus were the minds of the people brought to admit such pow- 
erful impressions of terror that death itself was sometimes the 
consequence. ' ' 

So great was the terror-inspired torture so frequently 
employed that men expired from the very apprehension of 
being subjected to it. Of this Eev. Mr. Gorden gives an in- 
stance : ''Whether an insurrection in the then existing state of 
the kingdom would have taken place in the county of Wexford, 
or in case of its eruption, how far less formidable and san- 
guinary it would have been if no acts of severity had been 
committed by the soldiery, the yeomen, or their supplementary 
associates, without the direct authority of their superiors, or 
command of the magistrate, is a question which I am not able 
positively to answer. In the neighborhood of Gorey, if I am 
not mistaken, the terror of the whippings was in particular so 
great that the people would have been extremely glad to 
renounce forever all notions of opposition to government if 
they could have been assured of permission to remain in a 
state of quietness. As an instance of this terror, I shall relate 
the following fact : 

*' 'On the morning of the 23d of May a laboring man 
named Denis McDaniel came to my house with looks of the 
utmost consternation and dismay, and confessed to me that 



The Rising of '98 141 

he had taken the United Irishman's oath and had paid for a 
pike, with which he had not yet been furnished, nineteen pence 
halfpenny, to one Kilty, a smith, who had administered the 
oath to him and many others. Whilst I sent my eldest son, 
who was a lieutenant of yeomanry, to arrest Kilty, I exhorted 
McDaniel to surrender himself to a magistrate and make his 
confession; but this he positively refused, saying that he 
should in that case be lashed to make him produce a pike, 
which he had not, and to confess what he knew not. I then 
advised him, as the only alternative, to remain quietly at 
home, promising that if he should be arrested on the infor- 
mation of others I would represent the case to the magis- 
trates. He took my advice, but the fear of arrest and lashing 
had so taken possession of his thoughts that he could neither 
eat nor sleep, and on the morning of the 25th he fell on his 
face and expired in a little grove near my house. ' ' ' 

Authors differ considerably in their statements concerning 
the extent and influence of the United Irish Society in Wex- 
ford. Mr. Hay who, on most points, is an excellent authority, 
seems convinced ' ' that the system of the United Irishmen had 
not diffused itself through the county of AVexford to the 
extent so confidently affirmed by Sir Eichard Musgrave, whose 
veracity in almost every other instance appears equally ques- 
tionable. The truth is that no authentic proof existed at the 
time to support these arrogant assertions, and subsequent 
information confirms how little the county of Wexford was 
concerned in that conspiracy, as no return appears of its 
being organized in the discoveries of the secret committees of 
the Houses of Lords and Commons. It would be contrary 
to truth, however, to say that there were no United Irishmen 
in the county of Wexford ; but by every statement worthy of 
credit that has ever appeared their numbers were compara- 
tively fewer in this than in any other county in Ireland.'* 
Treating of the same subject, the Rev. Mr. Gordon remarks : 
''The county of Wexford had not been otherwise than very 
imperfectly organized. ' ' 

Sir Richard Musgrave, with a view to justify the cruelties 
exercised by his brother Orangemen, the persecuting magis- 
trates of Wexford, affirms the county to have been completely 
organized. But no statement put forward by such a man can 
be regarded as deserving of any credit, being notorious for 
his virulent and reckless mendacity, heedless of what assertion 
he made to vilify a people for whom he cherished a most 



142 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

envenomed hatred. In the ''Memoirs of Miles Byrne," the 
^'Macamores" (the ancient name of the present baronies of 
Shilmalier) are mentioned as well organized. 

Mr. T. D. McGee holds a contrary opinion. In his "His- 
tory of Ireland" we find the following: 

''The most formidable insurrection— indeed the only real 
formidable one— broke out in the county of Wexford, a county 
in Vv' ich it was stated there were not 200 United Irishmen, and 
which Lord Edward Fitzgerald had altogether omitted from 
his official list of counties organized in the month of Feb- 
ruary. ' ' 

From these conflicting statements it is not easy to deduce 
any very definite conclusion ; but having weighed them all we 
may hazard an opinion that the organization existed in the 
county for a considerable time before the outbreak of the 
insurrection, but made little progress owing both to the oppo- 
sition offered to it by priests as a secret society, and to the 
peculiar character of the Wexford people, who have been 
always averse to secret societies of every description; but 
that driven to despair by the extreme measures adopted by 
the Government, they resolved upon resistance and then began 
to take the oath in great numbers. 

The reign of terror which we have feebly endeavored to 
describe did not attain its full height till the arrival of Lord 
Kingsborough at the head of the merciless corps called the 
"North Cork." Their arrival took place in the beginning of 
April, about three weeks before the proclamation of the 
county. This infamous horde, who came to riot in the blood 
of an unoffending people and finally to perish themselves by 
the vengeance of the same people roused to madness by op- 
pression, were enlisted from the dregs of the Orange popula- 
tion of Cork. However, the infamy attached to their memory 
casts no dark shadow on the fair name of that patriotic 
county ; for although they lived amongst the people they were 
by no means of them, and would have willingly exercised the 
same cruelty upon them as they did on the inhabitants of 
Wexford. 

These cruel mercenaries were adepts in the villainous arts 
by which the most peaceable are roused into vengeful retalia- 
tion; and the unfortunate people amongst whom they came 
found that even the native yeomen might be exceeded in 
cruelty. The latter, indeed, soon became emulous imitators 
of the newcomers and evinced that they lacked not the will tp 



The Rising of '98 143 

rival them in deeds of ruthless cruelty. What pen can ade- 
quately describe the horrors which were now daily exhibited ! 
Never, surely in any civilized country, were such scenes beheld 
as were now enacted under the eyes and with the sanction of 
the English Government. 

Had the history of these events been written only by those 
who might be considered partial to the sufferers there might 
be room to impugn its truthfulness, but men who, in prinr* les 
and politics widely differed, have confirmed it by their united 
testimony. 

But we prefer to hurry over these scenes of horror, merely 
tarrying amongst them sufficiently long enough to see by what 
means a peaceable people were driven into armed resistance 
to constituted power— a resistance which, though it proved 
unavailing, yet gave a lesson to tyrants not soon forgotten. 
The chief actors in those scenes of blood were the North Cork 
before mentioned, and to the diabolical ingenuity of their 
leader must be attributed the invention of the pitch-cap. This 
most dreaded instrument of torture was a spacious cap, made 
of strong, thick paper, shaped so as to cover the entire head, 
fitting close to it. This cap, being previously smeared inside 
with boiling pitch, was placed on the head of the individual 
condemned to the torture, and pressed down upon it so that 
the heated pitch should come into contact with the scalp, on 
which the hair had been cut short that the victim might expe- 
rience all the intensity of the torment. So great was the 
agony experienced by the unhappy wretches subjected to this 
cruelty that often, bursting from the grasp of the torturers, 
in the madness of the intolerable pain, they dashed their 
brains out against some neighboring wall, and thus put an end 
at once to their life and misery. 

But for such as were not driven by excessive pain to self- 
destruction, an additional torment remained, for when the 
pitch had cooled and the cap become firmly attached to the 
head of the sufferer, it was seized and torn violently off 
the head, bringing away with it all the hair and oftentimes the 
entire scalp, leaving the wretched victim writhing in agonies 
to which death would have been mercy. 

This species of torture, which might be duly deemed a 
refinement upon the scalping of the North American Indians, 
must not be thought to have been seldom exercised, for it was 
one of the most common and was used as a means of extorting 
evidence to sustain unfounded accusations. It was inflicted 



144 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

without trial at the mere caprice of every petty officer of 
yeomanry or militia. As these bands of torturers and execu- 
tioners traversed the country, the unfortunate peasantry 
whose homes they approached fled in terror to hide themselves 
in the fields, and from their places of concealment beheld the 
progress of the flames that consumed the humble roof that 
should no more afford them shelter. While these horrors were 
in progress, the magistrates of the county assembled at Wex- 
ford and commanded the inhabitants under pain of death to 
deliver all arms in their possession within fourteen days. 

The result of their deliberations appeared in the following 
notice which was distributed through the county: 

"NOTICE.— We, the high sheriff and magistrates of the 
county of Wexford, assembled at sessions, held at the county 
courthouse in Wexford this 23d day of May, 1798, have re- 
ceived the most clear and unequivocal evidence, private as well 
as public, that the system and plans of those deluded persons 
who style themselves and are commonly known by the name 
of United Irishmen, have been generally adopted by the 
inhabitants of the several parishes in this county, who have 
provided themselves with pikes and other arms for the pur- 
pose of carrying their plans into execution. And whereas we 
have received information that the inhabitants of some parts 
of this county have, within these past few days, returned to 
their allegiance, surrendering their arms and confessing the 
errors of their past misconduct, now we, the high sheriff and 
magistrates assembled as aforesaid, do give this public notice 
that if, within the space of fourteen days from the date hereof, 
the inhabitants of the other parts of the county do not come 
into some of the magistrates of this county and surrender 
their arms, or other offensive weapons, concealed or other- 
wise, and give such proof of their return to allegiance as shall 
appear sufficient, an application will be made to Government 
to send the army at free quarters into such parishes as shall 
fail to comply, to enforce due obedience to this notice. 
' ' Signed by Edward Percival, sheriff, Courtown ; John Henry 
Lyster, James Boyd, George Le Hunte, Thomas Handcock, 
John James, John Pounden, Hawtrey White, James White, 
Ebenezer Jacob, William Hore, Edward D'Arcy, John Heatly, 
John Grogan, Edward Turner, Isaac Cornic, Cornelius Gro- 
gan, Francis Turner, William Toole, Richard Newton King, 
Charles Vero." 

Terrified by the extreme cruelty with which those who were 



The Rising of '98 145 

treated with whom arms had been discovered, many of those 
who as yet possessed them hastened to give them up, hoping 
that being unarmed they might be left in peace. The Cath- 
olic clergy, too, advised their flocks to adopt this course, re- 
lying with groundless confidence on the promises of their 
faithless and merciless rulers. This error of judgment, how- 
ever, they afterwards nobly redeemed, by fighting valiantly 
against their relentless foes. As might have been forseen, 
this submission on the part of the people proved utterly un- 
availing to obtain any respite from persecution, and their 
sufferings, instead of being mitigated, increased day by day. 
Nothing was now heard in the country but the frightful 
screams of the tortured victims of the scourge or of the pitch- 
cap. But as man must ever cloak his guilt under some pre- 
cious pretext, this was done, forsooth, to force the victim to 
confess crimes of which he was suspected of being guilty. 

Despair took possession of the public mind, as the men 
under whose eyes, and by whose orders, such cruelties were 
practiced were the magistrates of the county, from whom 
there was no appeal. Amongst those bloodthirsty and in- 
human wretches, to whose tender mercies the unfortunate 
peasantry were delivered up by the English Government, some 
may claim more especial attention. Hunter Gowan, Archi- 
bald, Hamilton, Jacob, and Owens, a Protestant minister, 
earned for themselves an infamous notoriety for the savage 
energy with which they used the power which the law had 
placed in their hands. Gowan entered the town of Gorey 
at the head of his troops, holding his sword aloft, with a 
human finger stuck on its point, and afterwards, adjourning 
to an inn to refresh himself after his labors, and to recount 
to his friends the infamous exploits of the day, stirred his 
punch with the bloody trophy. Of a character equally in- 
famous was Jacob of Enniscorthy, who scoured the country, 
accompanied by a wretch as villainous as himself, who filled 
the double office of torturer and executioner. Besides those 
who underwent the various tortures in the power of such 
miscreants to inflict— and we have seen that their ingenuity 
was almost equal to their power, which was unbounded- 
numbers were sentenced to transportation, after a trial which 
was indeed a mockery of justice. 

Mr. Hay states that for months previous to the insurrec- 
tion, groups of from twelve to fifteen cartloads of persons 
condemned to transportation in other counties, passed daily 



146 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



through the county of Wexford, on their way to Duneannon 
Fort. The Wexford magistrates soon began to put the prece- 
dent thus afforded in practice to a fearful extent. Many of 
the condemned appealed to the court of quarter sessions, held 
as described on the 23rd, but, as might have been expected, 
all the sentences passed by individual magistrates were con- 
firmed by the twenty-three thereat assembled. Amongst the 
expatriated vitcims was a priest named Dixon, who was found 
guilty upon the evidence of an informer, although three re- 
spectable witnesses gave testimony— by swearing an alibi- 
sufficient to acquit him in any court of justice. During the 
week preceding the insurrection all manner of horrid rumors 
were rife in Wexford. As fourteen days were granted by 
the proclamation issued on the 23rd^ for the submission of 
the people and the delivering up of their arms, it was hoped 
by many that a cessation of the persecution hitherto main- 
tained might take place. But this hope was grievously dis- 
appointed. The various implements of torture were plied as 
vigorously as before; the brand of the legal incendiary still 
gave to the flames the once peaceful homes of the people, 
and the demons of cruelty and revenge alone rejoiced amidst 
the scene of universal horror and desolation. 



CHAPTER 11. 

WHOLESALE MASSACRES — FATHER JOHN MURPHY — ON TO OULART 

HILL. 

During the week preceding the insurrection two events, 
occurred in Wicklow calculated to deepen, if possible, the feel- 
ings of horror which the state of affairs in their own county 
had already excited in the breasts of the Wexfordians. Hith- 
erto individuals had suffered death or torture, but now it 
seemed wholesale massacres were determined upon. One of 
the events we allude to occurred at Dunlavin; the other, no 
less shocking in its detail, took place at Carnew, and is thus 
related in the ''Irish Magazine," published in 1811, while the 
affair was still recent. "The armed loyalist yeomen of 
Coolatin and Carnew traversed the country threatening the 
inhabitants that unless they came into Carnew for protection 
they should all be put to death. The people, suspecting the 
real design, remained at home. However, thirty-six unfor- 
tunates went and on their arrival they were seized and thrust 
into prison, and, in the interim, another summons was de- 
spatched to the country people to come into Carnew. This 
second invitation they treated as the first. The loyalists then 
proceeded to sacrifice the wretched people who had placed 
themselves in their power. They tied the thirty-six couples, 
back to back, conveyed them to the ball-alley, placed them 
against the walls in pairs, and shot every one." 

Men stood aghast on hearing of such a deed of wholesale 
slaughter. It now seemed plain that no man, however inno- 
cent, could deem himself safe; to be a ''Papist," or even a 
liberal Protestant, was a crime that sufficed to bring down 
destruction on his head. Brave men might think of resistance, 
but unarmed and unorganized as they were, what could it 
avail but to render their ruin more complete? In this dread- 
ful crisis, however, a man was found fearless enough, in the 
midst of an oppressed and dismayed people, to raise the 
standard of revolt, and bid a brave defiance to the tyrants of 
his country. 

This man had been known hitherto only as a kind, zeal- 
ous, and a true Irish priest, who, though he had won the 

147 



148 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses , 

highest honors of scholarship in a foreign university, yet 
had ever lived among his humble flock as one of themselves. 
A gentleman by profession and education, and by acquired 
accomplishments and natural gifts, fitted to move in the high- 
est circles, he preferred to be the poor man's friend than the 
rich man's flatterer. He, like others of his sacred calling, 
had believed in tlie faith of the faithless, and had counselled 
his flock to deliver up their arms at the mandate of their 
rulers. 

He now saw with bitter disappointment that the submis- 
sion had been of no avail ; that mercy was shown to none, not 
even to the old and helpless, nor even those whose sex should 
have been a sufficient defense. 

From the surrounding parishes reports came of fearful 
outrages daily committed, and at length the storm burst forth 
in full violence within the district whose inhabitants called 
him pastor. On the 26th of May twenty houses were set 
on fire in the parish of Boolevogue. The church soon after 
shared the same fate, and soon the humble temple wherein a 
virtuous people had often gathered together to worship God 
in the religion of their fathers, was reduced to a mass of 
smoking ruins, and the zealous priest, who had prayed and 
preached therein, found himself, without home or altar, a 
homeless and hunted fugitive. 

The often repeated, and, I believe, commonly received 
statement that the burning of Father John's house and chapel 
was what impelled him to take part in the insurrection, is 
quite unfounded. Like the majority of the Catholic clergy of 
the time, he had no house that he could call his own, but 
lodged in that of a parishioner, and the Chapel of Boole- 
vogue was not burned till the morning of Sunday, the 27th 
of May, when the insurgents had already begun by the fight 
at the Harrow. Father John had, indeed, opposed the or- 
ganization of the United Irishmen, not, as may be supposed, 
from any lack of patriotism, but because he deemed it unlaw- 
ful, as unable to effect what it aimed at, while he trusted that 
in time the English Government might adopt a policy more 
just and more merciful towards his unfortunate country. 

In this expectation he was, as we have seen, disap- 
pointed, for matters assumed, day by day, a gloomier aspect, 
till the good priest and true patriot perceived at length that 
oppression had risen to a height that justified, because it 



The Rising of '98 149 

necessitated, resistance. The step he designed to take was, 
perhaps, hastened by the following event: 

Saturday, the 26th of May, was the day appointed for the 
peasantry of Boolevogue and its neighborhood to deliver up 
their arms to a magistrate named Cornick, who was to meet 
them at Ferns. On arriving at that place, according to ap- 
pointment, they did not, as they expected, meet Cornick, but 
were fiercely assailed by a large number of the ''black mob," 
as the Orange yeomen of that period were called by the peas- 
antry. Their enemies, who outnumbered them by two to one, 
were all provided with swords and muskets, which they used 
with fatal effect. Overpowered by numbers, but still fight- 
ing bravely, the peasantry retreated towards home, turning 
now and then as their enemies pressed them too closely. On 
arriving at Milltown, they were met by Father John, who had 
ridden up on hearing of the affray. On seeing the arrival 
of the priest, the Orangemen, ceasing the pursuit, came to a 
halt, and presently afterwards returned to Ferns. It was 
this desperate and unprovoked attack, together with the burn- 
ing of the houses in his parish, that decided the hitherto 
wavering mind of Father Murphy. 

Father John luckily happened to be absent when the houses 
above mentioned were given to the flames, but he beheld the 
conflagration from a distance, and sought refuge in a neigh- 
boring thicket. To this place of refuge, also, came many of 
his people involved in the same calamity. Here, surrounded 
by a crowd of weeping women and children, and of men, who 
trembled not for themselves, but for their helpless wives, 
mothers, and sisters, and their more helpless little ones, the 
great-souled Soggarth thought more of their sorrow than his 
own, and now deeply deplored his infatuation in counselling 
the people to deliver up their arms, and thereby leaving them- 
selves at the mercy of foes whose hatred could be content only 
with their utter destruction. He now resolved to retrieve, 
if possible, this error of judgment. 

Hitherto he had been their leader in peace, now they 
should follow him in the struggle for freedom. The contest 
was, indeed, unequal ; but as his eye rested upon the stalwart 
forms of those sturdy men who stood before him in dejected 
attitudes, his spirit aroused itself from the torpor almost of 
despair into which it had sunk, and formed a brave resolve 
to change them into soldiers of freedom. His resolution taken, 
'Father John motioned to the people to gather more closely; 



150 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

around him, and began, in a direct and homely style, to speak 
of the deep sympathy he felt for them in their present af- 
fliction, which, he might truly say, grieved him more than 
his own mischance. He confessed his mistake in the matter 
of the arms, and finally declared that the time was com.e for 
resistance, and that he himself would lead to the field those 
of his parishioners who were willing to follow him, for he 
deemed it better to die like men with arms in their hands, 
than wait to be butchered like dogs in the ditches. 

Self-sufficient ignorance may presume to censure the coun- 
sel given by this good priest to his people, but there are times 
when resistance to tyranny becomes, if not a duty, at least 
a thing just and lawful, and who but the falsest, vilest, or 
most ignorant can deny that it was thus in the case of men 
who took up arms to defend life itself, and what true men 
value more than their own, the lives of those who are dear to 
them! There are histories of this period written by men in 
the service of the English Government, in which the acts and 
motives of the insurgent peasantry and of their leaders are 
foully misrepresented. The authors of such pretended his- 
tories basely calumniate the brave men who made so grand a 
struggle against their far too numerous and too powerful 
foes. They are not ashamed to call them ' ' deluded wretches, ' ' 
and to stigmatize their high-souled leader as a ''ferocious 
bigot who delighted in blood. ' ' 

Alas, Ireland has been sadly prolific of such vipers as 
those so-called historians— men who, living on property 
wrested by iniquitous laws from the people, habitually utter 
the vilest calumnies against the truest and lealest of her sons. 

The men they calumniate might have been uneducated, but 
was it their own fault or that of the ruler who banned the 
schoolmaster and set a price on his head? They had their 
faults, no doubt, but in all the qualities that make men es- 
timable they were far superior to their calumniators. They 
were honest men who lived by honest labor, not on the wages 
of dishonor; they were not descendants of CromwelPs blood- 
stained hypocrites, robbers and regicides, with, perchance, a 
title of honor that but made their native meanness more con- 
spicuous by the contrast, but were the sons of honest men 
with humble but stainless names— names which this history 
intends to prove they sullied by no craven or unworthy act. 

When Father John had concluded his brief speech, an ex- 
ulting cheer burst forth from all the men of his audience,. 



The Rising of '98 151 

and they forthwith declared their willingness to follow him 
through every danger. Well might those bold peasants ac- 
cept with joy their proffered leader, for he had been cast by 
nature in the mould of those who lead men to victory. 

Father John was rather under than over the ordinary 
stature of his countrymen, but broad-chested and strong- 
limbed, of remarkable activity as well as strength. His com- 
plexion was florid, his features rather handsome, but their 
beauty lay more in the expression than in the shape. His 
white forehead rose over bright blue eyes, which, though 
they usually beamed with a cheerful smile, could at times 
flash forth a glance that indicated the fiery and intrepid soul 
which in a just cause defies danger, and boldly confronts 
death itself. To personal advantages he united a most 
determined spirit and a power, invaluable in a leader, of in- 
spiring confidence in his followers. 

Had he received the advantages of a military education 
he might have successfully aspired to the highest honors of- 
fered by the career of arms, but he has obtained for himself 
a higher and a prouder name than any of the epauletted tools 
of tyrants; for the soldier who falls in the cause of an op- 
pressed people builds for himself a monument of fame that 
outlives that of granite or marble. 

Father John, thus chosen by acclamation the first captain 
of the insurgents, determined to commence his new career by 
a daring deed that would strike terror into the hearts of 
tyrants. He proposed that an attack should be made on the 
Camolin yeomen cavalry as they returned that night from 
one of their daily forays on the defenseless people, to Camo- 
lin Park, the residence of their colonel, Lord Mountnorris. 
The people were to disperse, provide themselves with what- 
ever arms they could procure, and return, when night had 
fallen, to the appointed place. 

In pursuance of this plan. Father John and his brave men 
met as soon as darkness had set in at the appointed place, 
and having thrown a barricade across the road by which the 
cavalry were to return on their homeward way, they con- 
cealed themselves behind the ditches on either side of the 
way. They had not been long in their place of concealment 
when they heard the welcome sounds of horses' feet break- 
ing in upon the silence of the night, and in a brief while their 
ruthless persecutors came in full view, discussing in loud 
tones their achievements during the day, and gloating over 



152 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the horrible details of acts of demon-like wickedness, little 
dreaming that their last foray had been ridden, and that their 
avengers were so close at hand. 

Riding thus leisurely along they arrived at length within 
sight of the barricade— halted at a short distance from it 
while one approached to ascertain its nature. Then a wild 
yell rising from behind the ditches told them of the presence 
of those they had good reason to fear as their deadliest foes. 
But they had little time for reflection, and but little for ac- 
tion. They had time only to fire one hasty and ill-aimed volley 
from their pistols when the foe was in their midst. 

The contest was brief— the pitch-fork with its sharpened 
prongs wielded by vigorous arms, and the deadlier scythe 
were more than a match for the sabre. After a fight that 
lasted but a few minutes, every saddle was empty of its yeo- 
man rider, and of those who had ridden forth in the morning 
on their cruel errand of bloodshed and plunder, the greater 
number now lay upon the highway bleeding and disfigured 
corpses. The horses and accoutrements of the fallen yeomen 
became now the spoil of the joyous victors, who, elated with 
this first and decisive success, determined to march to Camo- 
lin Park and take possession of the arms therein stored, 
which had been given up by the surrounding peasantry. In 
this enterprise they were also completely successful, captur- 
ing, in addition to what they had expected, a number of car- 
bines provided by Lord Mountnorris for the arming of the 
new corps he had organized. Well was it for the noble col- 
onel that he had not ridden out with his corps on this fatal 
day. 

Although this successful effort on the part of the insur- 
gents had taken place during the night, the tidings of it had 
before midnight been heard with joy in many a distant cot- 
tage and farmhouse, and before morning dawned the vic- 
torious band was augmented by many a brave recruit, pre- 
pared to brave all dangers fighting for the good old cause. 
Leaving Father John and his men to rejoice in their first 
victory, and to plan others, we will take a view of the state 
of the country, and briefly account minor events that oc- 
curred during the night of the 23rd, and on the ensuing day. 

The tidings of the successful surprise and defeat of the 
Camolin cavalry spread with great rapidity throughout the 
country. Turner, a magistrate, who escaped with difficulty 
from the pursuit of his long-hunted foes, at last turned to 



The Rising of '98 153 

bay, brought the startling news to Wexford early on Sunday 
morning. 

The North Cork, then stationed in the barracks, to the 
number of 100 men, and the Shilmalier yeomen cavalry im- 
mediately got under arms, and were soon on their march to- 
wards Oulart Hill, whereon it was said that their peasant 
foe intended to take up their position. 

The yeomany and militia who quitted Wexford on this 
expedition marched by different routes — the former taking 
the road that runs through the village of Castlebridge, and 
the latter choosing that by the seaside. They met by agree- 
ment at Ballyfarnock, and proceeding together as far as Bal- 
linamonabeg, they halted with the intention of quenching their 
thirst and laying in a stock of '* Dutch courage" at a pub- 
lic house there belonging to a man named Kavanagh. Not 
finding the owner at home, they proceeded to indulge in co- 
pious libations, and when they had drunk what they con- 
sidered enough, under the circumstances, these loyal defend- 
ers of the country and sustainers of the tottering constitu- 
tion, by way of payment, set fire to the house they had plun- 
dered. Thus, not content with robbing the unfortunate pro- 
prietor, they satisfied their brutal instinct of destruction by 
burning his house. 

This is but an illustration of the infamous treatment the 
unfortunate people were forced to endure at the hands of 
those whom frequent acts of injustice and cruelty seemed to 
have transformed into demons. The leader of these wretches, 
bear in mind, gentle reader, was a magistrate, armed with 
the power of life and death. The news of the defeat of the 
Camolin cavalry reached Gorey long before dawn, and the 
militia quartered there, apprehending the victors might di- 
rect their march thither, were seized with terror, and forth- 
with fled from the town. They, however, returned soon after 
on hearing they had gone in the direction of Oulart, and as 
cowards are ever cruel, they showed their satisfaction at this 
intelligence by torturing the prisoners they had taken. 

A young man named Jeremiah Donovon, disguised as a 
groom, bearing fictitious letters, directed to Lord Mount- 
norris, brought the news of the defeat of the yeomeil at the 
Harrow to Castlebridge, whence it spread rapidly over the 
entire country. Next day he returned in time to take part in 
the fight on Oulart, where he fell— the only man killed on the 
insurgent side. 



154 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

If the tidings of the successful result of the first encounter 
between the insurgents and their enemies served to raise the 
hope of the peasantry, it filled the various corps of yeomanry 
with a determination to take the direst vengeance— not that 
these cravens desired to meet in fair fight the half-armed 
peasantry, for they had it in their power to take a safer if 
less soldier-like revenge. 

The aged parents, the helpless wives and children of their 
feared and hated foes were in their power, and on these poor 
victims they would wreak their vengeance. Filled with this 
fell purpose, they sallied forth from their various stations 
and commenced j)utting to death all persons they encoun- 
tered on their way, and those were chiefly the feeble and un- 
armed, for the young and strong shunned the highway. They 
set fire to the houses of those they designated as '' rebels, Pa- 
pists, disaffected croppies," and in many instances the unfor- 
tunate inmates were consumed in the flames amidst the ex- 
ulting yells of their destroyers. An historian of the period 
himself a witness, affirms that on a march of some seven miles 
one corps alone set fire to one hundred houses ! 

Such achievements as this— the burning of the old and 
helpless, and the innocent in their houses— the Orange his- 
torians of the time mentioned in terms of mild deprecation, 
while they pour out the vials of their most wrathful denuncia- 
tion upon the heads of the hunted peasantry, because they 
dared to retaliate upon such ruthless enemies. Meantime 
Father John's force, considerably augmented, amounting to 
about 3,000 men, badly armed, indeed, but filled with a de- 
termination to conquer or die, set out about mid-day on Sun- 
day, the 27th, for the hill of Oularth, where they arrived 
about noon. This course their leader chose, to give the people 
of the neighboring parishes an opportunity of joining his 
standard. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE VICTOEIOUS BATTLE OF OULART HILL— FATHER MICHAEL MUR- 
PHY JOINS THE INSURGENT^— DEFEAT OF THE MEATH 
MILITIA. 

During the night of the 26th, a number of peasants as- 
sembled on the hill of Kilmacthomas, an eminence about nine 
miles to the west of Gorey. This multitude was largely com- 
posed of women and children, and had assembled, as it seemed, 
more in the hope of escaping the fury of the yeomanry or 
militia than with a determination to fight. While on his way 
to celebrate mass (it being Sunday morning) Father Michael 
Murphy was encountered by some of these people who be- 
sought him to accompany them to the hill. He had from the 
outset been strongly opposed to armed resistance, consider- 
ing it hopeless, and therefore unlawful ; but, at the same time, 
he declared, that if it were attempted, ''he would go with the 
people." In the fulfillment of this promise he proceeded to 
Kilmacthomas. Against the unorganized crowd assembled 
on the eminence in question, two hundred yeomen marched 
out from Carnew, and advancing boldly— probably encour- 
aged by the presence of the women and children— came within 
musket range, and poured volley after volley into the unre- 
sisting crowd, who soon fled in wild terror, while their foes 
pursued and succeeded in slaughtering about three hundred 
of their number. The Rev. Mr. Gordon states that after this 
massacre the yeomen in a march of seven miles burned a 
hundred cabins, and two Roman Catholic chapels. We turn 
with pleasure from this slaughter of helpless women and chil- 
dren to follow the fortunes of the brave peasants camped on 
Oulart Hill. 

About three thousand people accompanied Father John to 
the hill at Oulart, but of that large number there were not 
more than three hundred fighting men. The rest of the mul- 
titude consisted of women, children, old, infirm men, and un- 
armed striplings. Across the brow of the hill where it looks 
,to the old village of Oulart, about a mile distant, there ex- 
tends a breast-high ditch, forming a dividing line between 
two of the numerous small fields into which the cultivated 
surface of its rounded summit is di^dded. Behind this con- 

155 



156 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

venient breastwork Father Murphy stationed all the best 
armed men of his force. Of this small force the majority had 
pikes, but others were furnished with no more efficient arms 
than scythes and pitchforks. At some distance in the rear of 
this body he placed the women and children, with the old men 
and boys, whose too advanced or unripe age unfitted them for 
the approaching contest. Among these, however, there were 
many who afterwards did good service. The insurgent force 
thus disposed remained upon the hill-top, awaiting in anxious 
expectation the approach of their enemies from the direction 
of Wexford. It was the Sabbath day, and the summer sun 
had attained its meridian height, and was already verging 
towards the west, when the anxious watchers on Oulart Hill 
beheld a long line of red-coated men advancing towards them 
along the road that leads from Wexford, and crossing the 
summit of a swell of ground called the hill of Bolubwee (thus 
pronounced.) They halted on coming within a short distance 
of the base of Oulart. These men were the North Cork In- 
fantry, who had marched out of Wexford at an early hour 
that morning. From their elevated position the insurgents 
could plainly discern all the movements of the hostile body. 
The Shilmalier cavalry, under Colonel Le Hunte, who accom- 
panied the militia, were first seen to get in motion, extending 
their force so as to enclose the hill, evidently with the design 
of depriving their enemies of all chance of escape or retreat 
in case of their defeat by the militia. 

The latter deploying into line began to advance at a quick 
pace up the ascent from the southern side. The peasantry 
awaited their approach in silence, permitting them to come 
within musket shot of their earthen bulwark. Major Lom- 
bard, the second in command, rode somewhat in advance of 
his men, and not seeing, as he drew near the ditch, anything 
to denote the presence of the enemy, he concluded that they 
had fled ; under this impression he spurred his steed forward, 
waving his sword aloft, and calling loudly to his men to fol- 
low, exclaiming that ''the course was clear." 

The words of ill-timed exultation had scarce passed his 
lips when a bullet from the musket of one of the watchful 
insurgents pierced his breast. He instantly fell from his 
horse, and lay dead upon the field. On beholding the officer 
fall, the militia raised a shout of rage, and pressed forward 
at a quickened pace to avenge his death. While the military 
were thus advancing, one of the insurgents suggested to his 



The Rising of '98 157 

comrades that it would be well to raise their hats placed on 
the points of their pikes, over the top of the ditch, as thereby 
they might draw a volley from the advancing militia. This 
suggestion was instantly adopted, and had the desired effect. 
The militia, beholding, as they thought, the heads of their 
opponents elevated above the ditch, emptied their muskets 
with a hasty volley, which, of course, proved quite harmless. 

Having halted to deliver this volley, the soldiery again 
advanced at a less hurried pace, loading their muskets the 
while. But twelve of the insurgents were armed with guns. 
Six of these now rose, and resting the barrels of their muskets 
upon the ditch, delivered their fire with deadly accuracy upon 
their assailants. Six of the militia fell, and ijieir comrades 
in dismay and confusion returned the fire with another hasty 
and ineffectual volley. Again six of the insurgents rose and 
poured in another fatal volley. This second volley deprived 
the unfortunate red-coats of whatever little courage the first 
had left them, and being now charged by the pikemen, they did 
not withstand for five minutes' space their furious and de- 
termined onset. Disorganized and terror-stricken, they soon 
broke their ranks, and fled down the slope of the hill by the 
way they had advanced. But they had small chance of es- 
cape from the swife-footed peasantry, who, nimble as deer, 
pressed upon their footsteps. Their destruction, strange to 
say, was rendered more complete by the presence of the 
mounted yeomen, for a panic had seized the crowd in the rear 
of the defenders of the ditch on their approach, and they had 
actually begun their flight down the northern side of the hill, 
when perceiving the mounted yeomen they retraced their 
steps, returning just in time to join in the pursuit. Many of 
Ihe routed soldiery were piked before they could gain the 
foot of the hill; some, when hard pressed, turned to resist; 
others threw down their arms and begged, but in vain, for 
mercy. Some of the more agile of the fugitives reached the 
fields that stretch between the fatal hill and Bolubwee, but 
all of the rank and file perished in the pursuit. The last was 
slain at a distance of about a mile from the hill. Lieutenant 
Colonel Foote fled in time, and, mounted on a good horse, 
reached Wexford in safety. Upwards of one hundred of the 
common men fell in this action. 

Six officers were killed, viz.: Major Lombard (already 
mentioned), the Honorable Captain De Courcey (a brother 
of the then Lord Kinsale), three Lieutenants— "Williams, 



158 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Ware, and Barry, and Ensign Keogli. Concerning this en- 
gagement, the Eev. Mr. Gordon observes: 

''About 300 of the insurgents, rallied by their sacerdotal 
commander, made so furious, close, and sudden an onset with 
their pikes, that, with the loss of only three killed and six 
wounded, they slew the whole detachment, except the lieuten- 
ant-colonel, a sergeant, and three privates." 

Meantime the mounted yeoman remained passive specta- 
tors of the conflict, and saw with the utmost surprise and 
dismay the sudden and total defeat of their comrades. Their 
sympathy with their unfortunate allies was, however, soon 
changed into fear for their own safety, for one of their foes on 
the hill, armed with a long-shore gun, brought down one of 
their own body with a fatal aim. On seeing their comrade 
fall from his horse dead upon the field, they put spurs to their 
horses, and galloped off with all speed in the direction of 
Wexford. All the militia men were not slain on the hill, but 
many of them, flying in terror from the fatal hill, and seeking 
to escape from the adjoining fields, were pursued, overtaken, 
and slain. 

The fugitive yeomen, when out of sight, and safe from 
the pursuit of the now terrible pikemen, took a dastardly re- 
venge, by slaughtering all the ''croppies" they encountered, 
and setting fire to many houses. While these cowards are 
making their way towards Wexford, murdering as they go, 
the victorious insurgents, under their indomitable leader, not 
being able, for want of cavalry, to pursue their flying enemies, 
set forth for the hill of Carrigrew, on which they encamped 
for the night. Next morning at an early hour they marched in 
sort of military order to Camolin, where they were to find 
some arms that had lately been deposited there for the use 
of the yeomen. From Camolin they continued their march 
to Ferns, and they learned that the royal troops had retreated 
to Gorey and Enniscorthy. Father John now led on his 
gallant little band towards the latter town, taking a cir- 
cuitous route thither by the bridge of Scarawalsh, in order 
that the people of that district might have an opportunity of 
joining the forces. The glad tidings of these successes had 
spread rapidly over the county, and numbers of gallant young 
peasants, for the most part of the better class, came flocking to 
join the victors, prepared to fight to the death under such a 
brave and successful leader. The small force with which 
Father John had so boldly begun the insurrection being by 







H 
O 

o 



The Rising of '98 I59 

this time augmented to some 5,000 men, aboue five hundred of 
whom carried fire-arms, chiefly long fowling-pieces, it was 
thought expedient to hold a council of war to deliberate on 
their further proceedings. At this council it was decided to 
march without delay to attack Enniseorthy. On their way to 
that town they came to a halt on the hill of Balliorrell, both 
to rest after their long march and to deliberate concerning the 
intended attack. "While they were halted on Balliorrell, they 
were joined by Rev. Michael Murphy, at the head of some 
young men of his parish of Ballycarnew, full of ardor for 
fight, but, like their comrades, ill-armed. 

The plan of the intended attack on Enniseorthy being 
finally arranged, the insurgents descended the hill, and ad- 
vanced towards the town. Two hundred men, armed with 
firearms preceded the main body, which consisted chiefly of 
pikemen, on whose flanks and in whose rear some marksmen 
were placed. Moving onward in this order, they soon came 
in sight of the enemy, whose force consisted of several corps 
of yeomanry, mounted and on foot, and a body of the North 
Cork Militia amounting to about 500 men. This disciplined 
and well-armed force was strongly aided in the engagement 
that ensued by the loyalists of the town, who now took their 
stand on the nearest part of the town wall, or remained more 
safely entrenched within their houses, prepared to assist as 
much as they could the King's troops against their common 
enemy. Besides these loyalist Orangemen, many "respecta- 
ble Catholics" had offered their services, begging to be sup- 
plied with arms, that they evince their loyalty by firing upon 
their countrymen and co-religionists, but, being regarded as 
untrustworthy in this crisis, they were refused and harshly 
threatened for their temerity in daring to proffer their de- 
spised aid. 

The advance guard of the insurgent army now had ad- 
vanced to within musket shot of the Duffery gate, the prin- 
cipal entrance to the town. In front of the entrance several 
corps of yeomanry were drawn up. Their left flank was pro- 
tected against attack by the river Slaney, which runs through 
the town, and their right flank and rear by the strong walls 
of the town, and the houses that overtopped it, garrisoned 
with armed loyalist citizens. They were thus secure on either 
flank and in rear. Captain Snowe, with his company of North 
Cork, was stationed at the bridge, to secure the retreat of his 
comrades, in case they suffered a defeat. The road by which 



160 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the assailants advanced to tbe attack was one of the three 
leading to the Duffery gate, and on their advance being per- 
ceived by its defenders, they were charged with great fury 
by the cavalry. When the insurgents beheld their enemy ap- 
proaching swiftly towards them they quitted the road, and 
posted themselves behind the ditches that bounded it on either 
side, and, resting their guns on them, poured upon their ad- 
vancing foes a deliberate and deadly fire, which cooled their 
ardor, and made them retreat more quickly than they ad- 
vanced. However, on being reinforced, they again advanced, 
but with no better success, being forced to fly before the fire 
of the deliberate gunsmen. 

While the gunsmen thus keep their mounted enemies at 
bay and exchange a distant and scattered fire with the hos- 
tile infantry stationed at the Duffery gate, and the towns- 
people on the walls and in the houses, the main body of the 
insurgents, being come to a halt at a short distance from the 
town, hold a brief consultation as to the best mode of attack- 
ing troops so well armed and so advantageously posted as 
their enemies. 

Father John, who on every occasion evinced a military 
genius, suggested that the best plan, and that most likely to 
be attended with success, was to drive a number of cattle, 
that were herded in the rear of the column, to the front, and 
thence to goad them onward towards their enemy's ranks by 
a chosen body of pikemen, and that they might themselves 
safely follow in the rear of the maddened herd. 

This stratagem was tried, and proved completely success- 
ful. The cattle used for this purpose— the youngest and wild- 
est of the herd-- were driven quickly to the front, and thence 
onward towards the gate. 

They no sooner heard the wild shouts of those who drove 
them than they set forward at a rapid pace in the required 
direction, the agile pikemen following closely upon their heels, 
and thus approaching unharmed the line of their armed foes. 
The latter, perceiving the wild herd advancing furiously upon 
them, and hearing from the rear, above the bellowing of the 
maddened beasts, the louder and fiercer shouts of their 
dreaded foes, endeavored with all their might to check the 
cattle in their furious advance. To effect this some of the 
soldiery rushed forward to drive them back with the bay- 
onet, while others fired their muskets into the midst of the 
herd. But all their efforts were unavailing to arrest that 



The Rising of '98 - 161 

furious onset, for tlie cattle, goaded to madness by the yells 
of the men in the rear, and, when they attempted to turn back 
or slacken their speed, feeling the sharp points of the pikes, 
charged furiously forward into the ranks of the dismayed 
soldiery, and opened the way for a yet more dreaded foe— 
for with a wild cheer or revenge and hatred, the pikemen were 
amongst them. Not a moment's stand did they make against 
the peasants whose destruction they had but lately sworn to 
accomplish. The remembrance of the fearful wrongs they 
had endured— their burned homesteads— their tortured or 
murdered friends— nerved the peasant's arm, and brightened 
the courage of his brave heart. Success, too, had given him 
confidence in himself, and days of hard fighting had given 
him something of the soldier's heedlessness of life. 

The King's troops, completely routed, fled with the ut- 
most precipitation into the town, with their victorious foes at 
their heels in close pursuit. The impetuous advance of the 
insurgents was, however, checked by a most destructive fire 
directed against them from those houses near the gate, whose 
doors opened to receive and shelter their routed foe. Those 
of the late defenders of the Duffery gate who succeeded in 
escaping the fury of the insurgent assault having now joined 
their adherents already posted within the houses— both united, 
poured a terrible fire on the unsheltered assailants. How- 
ever, the undaunted peasantry sustained this terrible fusilade 
with the resolution of veteran soldiers, and straightaway pro- 
ceeded to force an entrance into those houses that proved so 
advantageous to their enemies, and so destructive to them- 
selves. This combination of valor and stubborn perseverance 
finally won the day. Consternation seized the foe on seeing 
such a display of heroic resolution in those frieze-coated men 
on whom they had so long trampled with impunity. Alas! 
they, too, were Irishmen, and in a good cause might have 
fought valiantly, but having chosen to become the hired cut- 
throats of a foreign Government, and employed to butcher 
their fellow-countrymen, they lacked that generous determi- 
nation to conquer or die that men who fight in a good cause 
alone can feel. At length the sight of the suburbs in a blaze 
(set on fire by the patriotic inmates), together with that of a 
multitude suddenly appearing on the summit of Vinegar Hill, 
completely disheartened the loyalists. 

Thomas Sinnott, of Kilbride, contributed much to the in- 
surgent success by leading a large body across the Slaney, 



162 IrkIjAnd's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

about a mile above Enniscortliy, and unexpectedly pouring 
into the town from the northern direction. Assailed thus on 
all sides the dispirited loyalists gave way. Orders were sud- 
denly given to sound a retreat, and in short time the garrison 
of the town, with their families, and a large number of their 
civilian adherents were on their way to Wexford. A panic- 
stricken and disordered crowd they were— soldiers and ci- 
vilians, women and children, forgetting every distinction of 
rank in their terrified eagerness to escape. Mr. Hay thus de- 
scribes the confusion of their flight: 

''Officers had been induced to tear off their epaulets and 
every other mark that could distinguish them from the pri- 
vates, considering themselves in more danger if they were 
recognized as officers. However, not being attacked, there 
was sufficient leisure to escort those that accompanied them, 
and who were in such a piteous plight as to excite on their 
arrival the hearty commiseration of all of the inhabitants of 
Wexford, who invited them indiscriminately to their houses, 
and supplied them with every comfort necessary in their 
power— and of which they stood in so much need. . . . Some 
had their clothes scorched about them, others wanted their 
shoes and other parts of their dress which had been lost or 
torn off; besides, the great heat of the day made it doubly 
distressing to delicate females— many of whom had the ad- 
ditional charge of the burden and care of their children. ' ' 

While the retreat was being sounded a party of Orange- 
men approached the castle with the fell intent of putting all 
the ''Papists" therein confined to death, and thus avenging 
in some degree their defeat. But, fortunately for those whose 
lives they had determined to take, the keeper of the prison 
had already fled, taking the key with him, and as the intended 
murderers had not sufficient time to force the strong door of 
the prison, they were forced to depart, their cruel intent un- 
fulfilled. So utter was the disorganization of the routed loy- 
alists that had they been pursued by their victorious enemies 
they must all have been slain or taken prisoners; but the 
pikemen, who on that day had marched thirty miles, and 
fought, as we have seen, for several hours afterwards with- 
out partaking of any food whatever, were far too weary to 
pursue fresh men, who fled as those only can fly who fear that 
death pursues. The insurgents used their victory with a mod- 
eration that adorned their valor, for no house was set on 
fire and no person maltreated or put to death— and this al- 



The Rising of '98 163 

though many of the townspeople had taken an active part 
against them. 

And yet these men have been branded as cruel and fero- 
cious because isolated deeds of revenge were perpetrated 
by individuals amongst them. 

I defy the base defamers of a race who are generous and 
forgiving almost to a fault, to substantiate the charges of 
cruelty and ferocity they have so unscrupulously made against 
the insurgents in the brief and disastrous but heroic struggle 
of the Irish of one county against all the military resources 
of England ! 

In this action the English lost upwards of one hundred 
men of the rank and file and three officers, amongst the latter 
Captain Pounden, of the Enniscorthy Infantry, who fell at the 
Duffery Gate. 

The insurgents, now masters of Enniscorthy, having 
possessed themselves of whatever arms and ammunition they 
found therein, deemed it prudent to quit the town, and en- 
camp on the rocky eminence Called Vinegar Hill, that over- 
looks and stands like a huge sentinel to guard it. 

While the insurgent army were encamped on and around 
Vinegar Hill, their number was hourly augmented by fresh 
arrivals, for the news of their success had spread far and wide 
during the night. 

Amongst the brave men who thus came to share the danger 
and glory of the contest were some whose position and edu- 
cation caused the insurgents to hail their arrival with joy. 
Garret Byrne, of Ballymanus; Thomas Clooney, of Money- 
hore ; and Barker, of Enniscorthy, arrived at the camp during 
the day to aid to the best of their power, their countrymen 
in the struggle for freedom. Vinegar Hill was now the center 
towards which the insurgents from the surrounding districts 
came flocking, and there were gathered the materials of as 
brave an army as ever bore arms in the cause of an oppressed 
country. They needed but unity of council and competent 
leaders to crown their cause with the most glorious success. 
Unity, however, was wanting, for every leader held his own 
view as to what course they should pursue, and the insur- 
rection had nearly come to a premature end when a fortunate 
incident occurred, which fixed their wavering thoughts and 
made them resolve to march on Wexford. 

This was the arrival of a deputation from the Wexford 
loyalists summoning them to surrender and disperse. The 



164 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

arrival of the liberated prisoners was hailed with the great- 
est enthusiasm by the people still remaining, and the joyfnl 
and surprising event, in a brief while spreading far and wide, 
had the effect of recalling to the scene those who were al- 
ready quitting it. When the gentlemen of the deputation in- 
formed their excited audience that they had been sent by the 
loyalists to dissuade them from advancing upon Wexford, the 
multitude burst forth into loud shouts of exultation, justly re- 
garding the embassy in its true light as an evidence of the 
weakness of their enemy and of their own strength which they 
themselves had not fully estimated. It inspired them with a 
confidence in themselves and their cause that hitherto they 
had somewhat lacked. Unable to agree before, they now de- 
manded with unanimous voice to be led without delay against 
the town. 

Mr. Colclough was immediately sent back (Mr. Fitzgerald 
being detained) to announce their determination. That very 
evening the insurgents set out for Wexford and encamped for 
the night on the ''Three Eocks," a ridge of the Forth Moun- 
tains, so called, which are situated about three miles from the 
town. 

Upon these barren and lofty hills the insurgents pitched 
their camp and having posted sentinels, retired to rest for 
the night, which was of unusual darkness. Early the next 
morning the watchful sentinels aroused their slumbering com- 
rades with intelligence that they had descried a large force of 
royal troops on the march, from the direction of Duncannon, 
towards Wexford. On the receipt of these tidings a body of 
men was despatched, under the command of Clooney, and 
Kelley, of Killan, to intercept and give battle to the advanc- 
ing force. Well did these brave men execute their orders. 
Having descended the hill, they sought a convenient ambush 
at its foot, and there awaited the approach of the loyalist 
force, who continued to advance in fancied security till the in- 
surgents, starting from their place of ambush, attacked them 
at once both in front and rear. The struggle was brief and 
soon decided. In this, as in subsequent engagements, the 
soldiery proved no match for their peasant foe, whose strength 
and activity set at naught the resistance of England's trained 
hirelings. 

After a fight of about ten minutes' duration, the entire 
detachment, amounting to about one hundred men and three 



The HiSLNG of '98 



165 



officers of the Meath Militia, were either slain or made prison- 
ers, and two pieces of cannon became the prize of the victors. 
The main body, of which the detachment thus signally de- 
feated formed the advanced guard, had advanced from Dun- 
cannon Fort as far as Taghmon on their way to Wexford, but 
on hearing of this defeat, General Fawcett, their commander, 
gave orders to retreat with all speed whence they had come. 

The following is the official account of the affair : 

Dublin Castle, June 2, 1798. 

*' Accounts have been received from Major-Greneral Eus- 
tace at New Ross, stating that Major-General Fawcett having 
marched with a company of the Meath Regiment from Dun- 
cannon Fort, this small force was surrounded by a very large 
body between Taghmon and "Wexford, and defeated. General 
Fawcett effected his retreat to Duncannon Fort. ' ' 

"We now leave the valiant and victorious insurgents to en- 
joy their latest triumph, in order to recount as briefly as we 
may the chief events that took place within the county town 
since the battle of Oulart. 




Composed from Book of Kells. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

ORANGEISM IN WEXFORD— COUIsTCILS OF WAR— DISHONEST STRATA- 
GEM OF THE LOYALISTS. 

When the tidings of the destruction of the North Cork 
reached Wexford, the loyalists there were filled with the great- 
est consternation. The comrades of the slain men, vowing to 
avenge or perish .with them, hurriedly assumed their arms 
and set out for Oulart. However, on arriving at the bridge 
they were met by a number of the loyalists townsmen, who 
succeeded in persuading them to defer for the present the exe- 
cution of their purpose, and return to their barracks. 

The widows and orphans of the fallen soldiers ran through 
the streets loudly bewailing the loss of their husbands and 
fathers, and mingling with their lamentations the bitterest ex- 
ecrations of the yeomanry, to whose cowardly conduct they 
attributed their destruction. 

The militia, not finding any other means of gratifying 
their vengeance, determined to put to death the prisoners in 
the town jail, singling out in particular Messrs. Harvey, Col- 
clough and Fitzgerald. But the governor of the jail, Joseph 
Gladwin, resolved to protect his charge against the violence 
of these desperate men. Having contrived to get the military 
outside the prison, he locked the door, and proceeded to warn 
the prisoners of their danger, furnishing the three gentlemen 
with weapons, that in case the militia succeeded in obtaining 
an entrance they might not perish without a struggle. The 
enraged militia, thirsting for blood, soon after arrived at the 
gates, and loudly demanded entrance. This being refused, 
they essayed to burst in the door, but its great strength defied 
all their efforts. At length, unable by force or stratagem to 
affect an entrance, these baflfled banditti departed and re- 
turned to their quarters. 

But yet greater reverses than any which had hitherto be- 
fallen them awaited the loyalists at Wexford. Next day they 
heard that the victors at Oulart had attacked Enniscorthy, 
and, from the dense clouds of smoke that could be discerned 
hanging over that town they concluded that it had been set 
on fire, and their terrified imagination added horrors to the 
catastrophe they had divined. The arrival of the fugitives 

167 



168 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

from the most miserable plight imaginable, and the exagger- 
ated accounts they gave of what they had witnessed and what 
they believed had taken place after their departure, inspired 
their woe-begone brethren of Wexford with the utmost dread. 

The town of Wexford was at this period a hot-bed of 
Orangeism, and the members of that baneful organization, 
upheld and fostered by English influence, had hitherto been 
absolute masters of the lives and properties of their Catholic 
fellow-townsmen. They had ruled in the fiercest spirit of 
hatred, the unfortunate possessors of a creed banned by the 
the laws of England, and evinced to the utmost the detesta- 
tion they bore to any Protestant who discountenanced their 
villainous tyranny. They now beheld with terror the long 
down-trodden helot rising up in the energy of his manhood 
and threatening to shake off the galling yoke he had so long 
borne, not, indeed, with patience, but with the hapless resig- 
nation of despair. In their days of power they had shown 
no mercy, and they now believed that if they fell into the 
hands of their enemy they might expect none. To secure 
themselves against such a calamity they resolved to use every 
possible precaution. 

The ancient town of Wexford now bristled with warlike 
preparation. Every avenue was strongly barricaded, and 
cannon were planted in the most advantageous positions. The 
loyalist inhabitants, including most of the wealthier class, 
came forward in this emergency to proffer their aid in the 
defense. Two hundred of their number were furnished with 
weapons and employed in guarding the walls (at the time en- 
tire), conforming in every respect to military discipline. 
Messrs. Harvey and Colclough, though still detained in prison, 
began to be treated with some consideration, being regarded 
in the light of valuable hostages. A numerous deputation of 
magistrates and military officers waited upon them in their 
place of durance, and besought them to exert their influence 
with their tenantry in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, to 
deter them from taking part in the insurrection. With this re- 
quest the imprisoned gentlemen complied— in truth they had 
no option, being quite at the mercy of their enemies. The 
loyalists of Wexford, deeming that town would be selected 
by the insurgents as the next object of attack, despatched mes- 
sengers to obtain reinforcements from the nearest garrisons, 
all the while prosecuting with the utmost vigor their defensive 



The Rising of '98 169 

preparations. At an early hour on the 29th of May, the first 
of the expected reinforcements arrived. It consisted of two 
hundred of the Donegal Militia, under Colonel Maxwell, ac- 
companied by the Heathfield Yeomen Cavalry, commanded by 
Captain John Grogan. With these came several officers of the 
13th Regiment of the Meath Militia, who announced the ap- 
proach of that force under General Fawcett. At a late hour 
the Taghmon Cavalry, under Captain Cox, rode into town. 
Notwithstanding the vigorous preparations they had made, 
and the presence of such a large number of armed defend- 
ers, the loyal burghers of Wexford could not shake off the 
terror that had seized them when the idea of an insurgent at- 
tack upon the town had first entered their minds. Nothing 
could exceed the terror now displayed by the Orangemen, aris- 
ing, as it may naturally be supposed, from the consciousness 
of the outrages they committed, of the houses they had burned, 
of the innocent people they had tortured and put to death. 
Filled with the utmost direful apprehensions, many of them, 
hastened to take refuge on board the ships that had moored 
within the harbor, intending to sail for England in case the 
insurgents became masters of the town. Others shut them- 
selves up in their houses and awaited in anxious suspense the 
further course of events. In addition to the precautions al- 
ready adopted for the security of the place, an order was 
issued commanding that all fires should be extinguished, even 
those used for baking purposes, and that all thatched houses 
should be stripped of their covering. Scouts were despatched 
to explore the country in all directions, and to bring in what- 
ever intelligence they could gather of the enemy's move- 
ments. To add to the feelings of depression that weighed so 
heavily on the inhabitants, the bodies of the officers who had 
been slain at Oulart were brought into town in mournful pro- 
cession—the first victims to hostile rage seen in Wexford on 
the loyalist side since the contest between the people and their 
rulers was entered upon. 

Mr. Hay, being thought a favorite amongst the insurgents, 
though a loyalist, was now appealed to, and entreated to use 
his influence with the latter, and, if possible, to induce them 
to disperse. He himself gives the following account of the 
transaction, which exhibits a strange mixture on the part 
of the Orangemen of dread of the insurgents and distrust of 



170 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the ** Papists," of the most overweening arrogance and most 
arrant cowardice curiously combined. He says : 

''No magistrate being found, as I suppose, that would 
venture on this dangerous service, it was then inquired wheth- 
er the liberation of Messrs. Harvey, Fitzgerald and Colclough 
might not appease the people. On this question I declared 
myself incompetent to decide. I was then asked whether, if 
enlarged on bail, they would undertake to go out to the in- 
surgents and endeavor to prevail on them to disperse. To 
this inquiry my answer was, that as the lives of these gentle- 
men were in danger from the fury of the soldiery, while they 
continued in prison, I thought they would comply with this 
request. The matter now became public, and the prisoners 
were accordingly visited by the most respectable gentlemen 
in the town, several requesting of me to accompany them to 
the prison for the purpose of introduction. Indeed, so marked 
was the attention paid to them on this occasion that an in- 
different spectator would be led to consider them rather as the 
governors of the town than as prisoners. On the 28th and 
29th I had many conversations on this subject with the offi- 
cers and gentlemen of the place, and at length I was myself, 
together with five other gentlemen (two for each of the three 
prisoners), bound in five hundred pounds severally; and 
Messrs. Harvey, Fitzgerald and Colclough themselves individ- 
ually, in one thousand pounds security for their appearance 
at the next assizes. It was further conditioned that, although 
they were all three bailed, only two should be at large at any 
one time, but that they might take their turns at going abroad 
interchangeably at their discretion, provided 'one should al- 
ways remain in gaol as a guarantee for the return of the 
rest.' " How this embassy fared will appear in the sequel. 
The force of royal troops that now held possession of Wex- 
ford amounted to 1,200 men, including regular troops, yeo- 
manry, militia and armed citizens. 

Of this large force ex-Colonel Watson, though not formally 
appointed, undertook the command, to which important trust 
the energy and courage he so signally displayed very justly 
entitled him. But the brave old veteran did not seem quite 
successful in inspiring his own spirit into his followers. The 
hopes of turning the tide of insurgent warfare from the town, 
which for a while upheld their sinking spirits, were quite dis- 
pelled on the arrival of Mr. Colcough that evening to announce 



The Rising of '98 171 

the final determination of their enemies. That gentleman, 
without dismounting from his horse, proceeded straightway 
to the "bull-ring,'* and there announced in a loud voice to the 
people, who anxiously gathered around him, the answer re- 
turned by the insurgents to the deputation, and their resolve 
to attack the town. 

Having delivered this unwelcome message, he proceeded to 
visit Mr. Harvey, who was still detained in prison, and having 
had a short interview with that unlucky captive, rode off to 
his own residence at Ballyteigue. The tidings brought by Mr. 
Colcough completed the dismay of the loyalists. The ships 
in the harbor, before quite sufficiently filled with people, were 
now overcrowded. The places of business were all closed as 
on a holiday, but there was no appearance of Sabbath calm 
or tranquility in Wexford. Every loyalist beheld his own feel- 
ings of terror and anxiety reflected upon the pallid faces of 
his brethren. As night fell the scouts came in announcing the 
approach of the enemy. Meantime the military stood to their 
arms, alert and watchful. Fearing lest the insurgents might 
enter by the bridge, its portcullis was raised, and all means 
of approach from that side cut off. At daybreak the tarred 
piles of that structure were discovered to be on fire, nor could 
the conflagration be extinguished till the footboards were quite 
consumed. All night long the streets echoed to the heavy 
tramp of the military as they passed to and fro between the 
different posts, while the only other sound that invaded the si- 
lence of the night was the wailing of women and children, ter- 
rified by the anticipation of coming evil. At length morning 
broke, and its light showed the loyalists a great multitude of 
people assembled at Ferrybank, at the farther end of the 
bridge, evidently with no friendly purpose. 

The 13th Eegiment, under General Fawcett, being expected 
to arrive on this day. Colonel Watson resolved to make a di- 
version in their favor, and by engaging the attention of the 
insurgents to facilitate the entry of the royalist general. 

With this intent he led out a force of some three hundred 
of the garrison, taking his route in the direction of the "Three 
Rocks. ' ' More zealous in the cause than his men, the veteran 
pushed on before them to reconnoitre, but being descried by 
one of the wary insurgent sentinels, when he had advanced as 
far as Belmount, he was fired at, and fell pierced with a mor- 
tal wound. 



172 Ireland's Crown of_Thorns and Roses 

On seeing the fall of their leader, the troops, who were 
following at a safer distance, took to flight— the yeoman cav- 
alry, as they galloped into town, well nigh riding down the 
infantry. Their arrival but served to complete the dismay 
of the inhabitants. 

Immediately upon the return of this fruitless expedition, 
a council of war was held, in which it was decided to evacuate 
the town forthwith. Before quitting the place, the yeomen 
determined to murder the prisoners in the gaol. But the reso- 
lute and wary governor, true to his trust, foiled them on this 
occasion, as he had done on the previous one, to which we have 
referred. In the present perilous situation, Mr. Harvey's 
supposed popularity gave him no little importance in the eyes 
of the Orange gentry. A number of them waited upon that 
worthy, but, it must be acknowledged, not very heroic person- 
age. They found him hiding in the chimney of his cell, up 
which he had clambered on hearing that the yeomanry de- 
signed to attack the prison. Being hauled down from that un- 
dignified retreat, with no small exertion on the part of his visi- 
tors, in a very begrimed condition, he was politely informed 
of the object in seeking him. His fears abated on being told 
that instead of coming to take his life his visitors only de- 
sired him to try and save their own by proceeding to the in- 
surgent camp and using his influence there to obtain as favor- 
able terms as possible for the loyalists. 

He could not, however, be induced to undertake this com- 
mission, but consented to write a letter to the insurgents. The 
epistle penned by Mr. Harvey on this occasion is as follows : 
•'I have been treated in this prison with all possible humanity, 
and am now at liberty. I have procured the liberty of all the 
prisoners. If you pretend to Christian charity, do not com- 
mit massacre, or burn the property of the inhabitants, and 
spare your prisoners' lives.— B. B. Harvey. Wednesday, 
May 30, 1798." 

To find some trustworthy person to bear this missive to 
its destination was the next step to be taken. A Catholic yeo- 
man named Doyle presented himself, but his offer was con- 
temptuously rejected— he was a ** Papist," and therefore quite 
unworthy in the eyes of the senders to undertake any commis- 
sion on their behalf. At length two brothers, named Eichards 
—both counsellors— were pitched upon, and despatched im- 
mediately to the *' Three Rocks." No sooner had these gen- 



The Rising of '98 I73 

tlemen set out on tlieir mission than the military began to 
make the hastiest preparations for the flight. The sending of 
the embassy was in truth nothing but a wily and dishonest 
stratagem to engage the attention of the insurgents and to 
retard their advance till all the sinister designs of the royalist 
garrison had been effected. The town now presented an ex- 
traordinary spectacle. The military having thrown off all 
discipline, presented the appearance of an armed mob, con- 
fused, disorderly, and terrified, but cruel and trucculent even 
in the extremity of their terror. The North Cork were the 
first to quit the town setting fire to their barracks as they 
abandoned it. 

The yeomanry delayed their departure for some time, em- 
ploying the interval in destroying such ammunition as they 
could not carry with them— plundering some houses and set- 
ting fire to others. All ranks seemed equally affected by the 
disgraceful panic of the moment— the royalist officers dis- 
playing no less cowardice than the common men. Some of 
these gentlemen tore off their epaulets and other insignia of 
rank; while others, thinking this precaution insufficient, di- 
vested themselves of their uniforms, and replaced them with 
such tattered and beggarly garments as they could procure, 
and thus metamorphosed, hurried down to the quay, and threw 
their swords and pistols into the river. Mr. Hay, a witness of 
this scene, thus describes it: ''The confusion and dismay 
which prevailed were so great, as no kind of signal for retreat 
had been given, that officers and privates ran promiscuously 
through the town, threw off their uniforms, and hid them- 
selves wherever they thought they could be best concealed. 
Some ran to the different quays in expectation of finding boats 
to convey them off, and threw their arms and ammunition 
into the river. All such as could accomplish it embarked on 
board the vessels in the harbor, having previously turned their 
horses loose. Some ran to the gaol to put themselves under 
the protection of Mr. Harvey. ... In short, it is im- 
possible that a greater appearance of confusion tumult or 
panic could be at all exhibited. ' ^ 

This scene of confusion and terrified preparation for flight 
did not escape the vigilant eyes of the multitude assembled 
since early dawn at Ferrybank. Aware of the intentions of 
the loyalists, they strove hard to repair the bridge, so as to 
be enabled to cross over and hinder their escape. While these 



174 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

transactions were going forward within the town and in its 
immediate vicinity, the two brothers despatched to the * ' Three 
Eocks" by the loyalists were engaged in endeavoring to ob- 
tain terms of capitulation from the insurgents. They stipu- 
lated on the part of those who sent them that the town, to- 
gether with all the arms and ammunition it contained should 
be delivered up to the captors, on the sole condition that the 
lives of the garrison should be spared. To these terms the 
insurgents at length agreed, and, detaining one of the broth- 
ers, sent the other, in company with Mr. Fitzgerald, to see 
that the conditions were faithfully carried out. When they 
arrived at the town they found, to their great surprise, that it 
had already been evacuated by the military. 

Meantime the insurgents of Ferrybank having succeeded 
in repairing the bridge, though too late to prevent the escape 
" of their treacherous enemy, came pouring into the town, rend- 
ing the air with shouts of triumph. Immediately on entering, 
they proceeded to the gaol and liberated the prisoners many 
of whom were their friends and relatives. 

The town now -threw off its mourning aspect, and assumed 
a gay and lively air to correspond with the feelings of its new 
occupants and masters. 

In a marvellously brief space of time the quaint old houses 
of the sober town were profusely decorated with boughs of 
all sizes, and of every shade of the same pleasant hue. All 
the doors were thrown open, and the freest hospitality offered 
to the new-comers, which, though no doubt quite sincere on 
the part of some of the inhabitants, was more than doubtful 
on that of others. So suspicious were the peasantry of the sin- 
cerity of this welcome when proffered by known loyalists, that 
they required of them to taste the liquor they offered them 
before partaking of it, for they believed these worthies were 
quite capable of poisoning the draught, not being in the least 
deceived by the false colors they had hung out. 

None were at this juncture more demonstrative in their 
exhibitions of affectionate welcome than those adherents of 
the Orange faction who remained in town. 

No houses were decorated with a greater profusion of 
green boughs ; no hats displayed the green cockade more than 
theirs. Shortly after the arrival of this body of peasantry, 
the insurgent army from the ' ' Three Eocks ' ' marched in and 
halted at the Windmill-Hill. On being informed of the treach- 
erous ruse played upon them by the garrison, they gave way 



The Rising of '98 175 

for a time to violent rage, and could with diffienlty be dis- 
suaded by their leaders from setting fire to the town, for they 
deemed the inhabitants accomplices in the deception practiced 
upon them. However, the anger of the duped insurgents con- 
fined itself to the pillage and burning of one house, that of 
Captain Boyd of the Wexford yeomanry, a notorious perse^ 
cutor; with this exception the town sustained no injury at 
their hands. 

Those Orangemen who had taken refuge on board the 
shipping in the harbor were now led back to town. Two of 
their number were sacrificed to popular vengeance. These 
were John Boyd, brother of Captain Boyd, above mentioned, 
and George Sparrow, an Enniscorthy butcher, both Orange- 
men, and both of infamous character. They were piked on the 
quay soon after landing. 

While these transactions were in progress in the captured 
town, the fugitive military were on their way to Duncannon 
Fort. They marched rapidly through the country till they 
had gained what they deemed a safe distance from Wexford, 
and then began to advance at a more leisurely pace till they 
reached the village of Mayglass. Here they first began to glut 
their brutal rage by the slaughter of a number of unoffending 
people who had come out from their houses to gaze upon them 
as they marched past. They also found time to set fire to the 
Catholic church at Mayglass. In their further progress no 
one they encountered escaped their fury, not even the women 
and children. On the ensuing morning, these murderous ban- 
ditti, exhausted by their long march, reached Duncannon Fort. 

This eventful day at length came to a close, and night 
fell upon the liberated town as peacefully as if nothing had 
occurred to disturb its wonted tranquillity; but on the ensu- 
ing morning the streets were thronged with a busy and ex- 
cited multitude. An eager search was instituted for ammuni- 
tion, of which the insurgents stood sorely in need, and their 
chagrin was excessive at finding only three barrels of gun- 
powder. The martial spirit of the victorious insurgents did 
not suffer them to rest while an enemy trod the soil of their, 
country, nor were their leaders less prompt in action than 
the men who marched under their command. 

Early on the morning succeeding the capture of the town 
the insurgent leaders issued orders to their men to march 
out and encamp on the Windmill-Hill, leaving behind such a 
force as they judged sufficient to garrison the town. 



CHAPTER V. 

FATHEE JOHN MURPHY JOINED BY FATHERS ROCHE AND KEARNS— 
BATTLE AT NEWTOWN-BARRY— GOEEY SURPRISED. 

Meantime the armed thousands posted on the Windmill- 
Hill were told of the final determination of their leaders to 
divide their force into two divisions, each of which would take 
a diif erent route. Accordingly, General Harvey and the corps 
under his immediate command, who were chiefly men from 
Forth and Bargy, took the direction of Taghmon and en- 
camped there for the night. The second division, comprising 
those gallant men who had won the battles of Oulart and En- 
niscorthy, and were for the greater part from the northern 
parts of the county, set out once more in the direction of 
Gorey, passing on their way the scenes of their former vic- 
tories. Though they had consented to the appointment of 
Harvey as commander-in-chief, they had formed a true esti- 
mate of his capability, and justly placed more confidence in the 
man who had often led them to victory. Father John, their 
own brave Soggart. On the first day's march, of what we may 
call their second campaign, they were joined by the Rev. 
Philip Roche and the Rev. Father Kearns. Father Roche pos- 
sessed in an eminent degree those personal advantages so 
highly prized by his countrymen. He was brave and hand- 
some, of pleasing manners, and well fitted in every way to be 
a popular leader. Father Kearns was a man of great size 
and strength, whose scorn of danger, and confidence in his 
own strength and activity, were evinced by his going into ac- 
tion armed only with a heavy riding whip. However, his 
courage degenerated into harshness, and his self-reliance was 
unallied with other qualities as indispensable in a leader. 

Soon after his arrival. Father Kearns proposed that an 
attack should be made on the soldiery stationed at Newtown- 
barry, with the design of driving them from thence, and thus 
opening communication with the counties of Wicklow and 
Carlow, affording their inhabitants, who were at the time 
being hunted down like wild beasts, an opportunity of finding 
a rallying place among the conquering Wexfordmen. This 
proposal was joyfully consented to, and Father Kearns him- 

177 



178 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

self being chosen leader of tlie enterprise he had suggested, 
soon fonnd himself at the head of about two thousand men, 
chiefly armed with pikes ; for even at this period firearms of 
any description were rare among the insurgents. 

These soldiers of freedom proceeded without delay to- 
wards their destination, preserving in their progress as much 
appearance of military order as could have been expected. 
They encountered no enemy on their march save some bodies 
of mounted Yeomanry, who fled as they approached, or if 
they attempted to make a stand it was but for a moment, be- 
ing unable to withstand the impetuous charge of the deter- 
mined pikemen. It is an admitted fact that in few instances 
could those well-armed and well-mounted men be brought to 
face the undisciplined and ill-armed insurgents, who had lit- 
tle to rely on but their native valor, heightened by the sense 
of wrong and the consciousness of fighting in a just cause. 

When this division arrived in sighf of the town they halted 
in order to repose for a brief while after their long and rapid 
march. During this halt one of the men approached Father 
Kearns, and modestly suggested that it would be prudent, in 
case the attack succeeded, to occupy a similar position on the 
opposite side of the town as a precaution against any possi- 
ble surprise. Unfortimately Father Kearns slighted this 
wise counsel, and thereby, as we shall see, lost the town, 
though successful in the first assault. After a short interval 
of rest, Father Kearns, having first invoked aloud the Divine 
aid, gave the signal for attack. The insurgents rushed down 
the slope of the hill on which they had halted, with their cus- 
tomary impetuosity, and in a few minutes reached the town. 
Their confident courage was nothing daunted by the sight of 
five hundred regular troops, under the command of Colonel 
L 'Estrange, arrayed against them, together with several 
corps of the despised yeomanry; for the people had so often 
defeated both soldiery and yeomanry that they began, as a 
natural consequence, to hold them in contempt. 

On this occasion, as on others, the united charge of the 
stalwart peasantry, their semi-military line bristling with the 
formidable pike, carried all before it. After a brief and 
feeble resistance, the regular troops retreated with the great- 
est precipitation; and as for the yeomen, they galloped off, 
after making a feint of resistance, to seek revenge for their 
defeat in burning the houses and slaughtering the defenseless 
friends of their peasant foemen. 



The Rising of '98 179 

However, all the advantages thus gained by the gallant on- 
set of the insurgents were lost by the neglect of the precaution 
above mentioned; for the flying soldiery were encountered, 
when only a short distance outside the town, by a detachment 
of the King's County Militia despatched to their aid. On 
receiving this timely reinforcement they rallied, and soon 
determined to return to the town, reckoning on their taking the 
enemy by surprise. 

Acting on this resolve, they returned once more, and found 
their lately victorious enemy dispersed here and there through 
the place, and, as might be supposed, had little diflficulty in 
driving them outside the walls. Thus what valor had so 
lately won, lack of prudence now lost. 

However, though surprised and divided, they fought 
bravely, and inflicted, in their retreat, considerable loss on 
the enemy. In this way was Newtownbarry lost and won, 
and with it all the advantages that would have accrued to 
the insurgent cause from its possession. 

Thus were all the efforts of these gallant peasants ren- 
dered unavailing by the neglect of an ordinary precaution. 
But, while we regret the error and its consequences, we can 
hardly blame such novices in the art of war for an error into 
which trained troops have often fallen. 

The men whose enterprise had thus failed were now forced 
to march by small detachments to reach the only rallying place 
known to them— the camp on Vinegar Hill. The greater 
number of them reached that rendezvous the same night, and 
early on the following morning set out to rejoin their com- 
rades whom they found encamped on the hill of Carrigrew. 
They were received kindly by them, and found them busily 
engaged in acquiring som^e knowledge of military manoeuvres 
under the direction of such patriotic yeomen as had left their 
corps, or had been expelled therefrom on suspicion of being 
United Irishmen. While the insurgents were thus wisely en- 
deavoring to acquire that training which, united to their 
dauntless valor, would have rendered them invincible, the 
English commanders were not idle, but were making prepara- 
tions to attack, with an irresistible force, the foe they had at 
first despised, but had now learned to dread. 

On the morning of the 4th of June tidings reached the in- 
surgent camp at Carrigrew that two divisions of the regular 
army were on the march from Gorey and Carnew to attack 



180 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

them; moreover, that each division of this formidable force 
was furnished with artillery, and accompanied by several 
corps of mounted yeomanry. They were to meet near the 
insurgent position, and unite for a combined attack. Of the 
large force thus acting in concert against the insurgents, 
General Loftus and General Walpole were the commanders. 

To oppose such a formidable array of trained troops, pro- 
vided with every warlike munition, and led on by officers of 
high rank and experience, the means at the command of the 
insurgent leaders seemed but too inadequate. They were 
strong, indeed, in numbers, and in the possession of a brave 
and determined spirit, but destitute of all else that render 
men formidable in war. They had neither cavalry nor artil- 
lery, their firearms were but few, and their supply of powder 
and ball extremely scanty. 

The greater part of the men were, it is true, by this time 
possessed of pikes— admirable weapons when used in a close 
fight, but otherwise useless. Yet, notwithstanding all these 
disadvantages, which would have been quite sufficient to in- 
duce any but Irishmen to abandon the contest as useless, the 
men at Carrigrew, confident of their courage, and proud of 
their heroic leaders, resolved to meet their enemies once more 
in battle. The insurgent leaders having consulted together in 
this perilous and critical situation, concerning the best course 
to be adopted, resolved to march without delay and attack 
that division of royal troops just then advancing towards 
them from Gorey, and having, as they hoped, defeated them, 
to proceed to the release of the unfortunate men confined 
and awaiting execution in that town. 

Having come to this resolve, the insurgents once more 
quitted Carrigrew, and, halting at a short distance from that 
eminence, on level ground, proceeded under the direction of 
their chiefs to put in practice some of the lessons they had re- 
ceived in the art-military a little while before. 

They soon fell into fair marching order, and at the word 
of command set off at a pace that few armies could have 
maintained. 

A body of two hundred chosen pikemen, with gunsmen in- 
terspersed, preceded the main body at the distance of a mile. 
In the meantime. Colonel Walpole, against whose division 
they were on the march, had information of .their advance, 
and led out his men to meet them. 



The Rising of '98 181 

Having advanced a short distance beyond Tubberneering, 
he halted at a spot where the road takes a sharp turn to the 
right in the direction of Carrigrew, so that a body of men 
advancing from that direction would be likely to march into 
sudden view of the enemy, and, consequently, surprised and 
panic-stricken, would fall an easy prey. Thus reasoned the 
English chief, and thus, with his chosen troops drawn up in 
line of battle, his powerful and numerous artillery in good 
position to sweep the insurgent ranks with a discharge of 
ball and canister, his cavalry all impatient to make havoc 
among the peasantry, routed and disordered by the fire of mus- 
ketry and cannon, the royalist officer awaited the approach 
of the insurgents. 

He was not long kept in expectation. 

The advance guard of the insurgents arrived at the point 
where the road made the sharp turn described, and marching 
in a compact body, and with a quick step, came suddenly in 
the presence of their red-coated foes, who instantly welcomed 
them with a combined and terrible fire of artillery and 
musketry. 

The insurgents, on receiving this unexpected salutation, 
halted, and one of the few horsemen who accompanied them 
was instantly despatched by their leader to apprise the main 
body of the presence of the enemy. During this brief halt 
the insurgent vanguard had kept their ranks manfully, and 
now advanced amidst a storm of death-dealing missiles to 
take up a less exposed position behind a ditch that lay at some 
distance on their left. While crossing a large field which 
extended between them and the shelter they sought, they 
suffered great loss from the enemy, who continued to pour 
into their thinning ranks a deadly discharge of all arms. 

The insurgents at length gained the ditch, which as they 
had hoped, afforded them protection from the enemy's fire, 
and thence in their turn commenced and maintained a telling 
fire on the hostile ranks. The insurgent fire was extremelj' 
destructive for those of them who were armed with guns 
were for the most part practised sportsmen, and the ditch 
behind which they lay was but half musket shot from the royal 
troops. Thus the insurgent advance guard galled the royal- 
ists and kept them in check, for the latter feared to advance 
and drive the gunsmen from their shelter, for though insignifi- 
cant in number, they knew them to be accompanied by the 



182 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

pikemen, who had ever proved such terrible foes at close 
quarters. 

The main body of their dreaded enemy now appeared in 
swift and impetuous advance, drawn up in the form of a cres- 
cent, and bristling all over with the formidable pike. The ad- 
vancing insurgents avoided the open ground on which their 
advance guard had suifered such severe loss, and keeping 
towards the left, seemed determined to assail the royal troops 
on their left flank, while the gunsmen engaged them in front. 

On seeing this large body advancing to attack his divi- 
sion, already disheartened by the loss they had sustained 
from the persistent and fatal fire of their sharp-shooting foes, 
the royalist commander gave orders for retreat. 

But while the royal gunners, in obedience to this welcome 
command, were engaged in harnessing their horses to the 
gun-carriages, they were surprised and taken, together with 
their iron charges and all that appertained to them, by the 
advance guard of the insurgents, who now sallied from be- 
hind the ditch they had so well defended. 

The insurgents, who were as merciful as they were brave, 
treated their prisoners kindly, and soon applied themselves to 
learn from them the management of the destructive weapons 
they had so gallantly captured. 

Colonel Walpole, though thus forced to retreat before his 
peasant foe, resolved like a brave soldier to make a final stand, 
and thus decide the contest. With this determination he 
halted at Clough, a village between Gorey and Tubberneering. 
Here he was reinforced by a company of grenadiers, des- 
patched by General Loftus to his aid, until that officer should 
arrive with his whole division. The rallied troops of Wal- 
pole, reinforced by the grenadiers of Loftus, were not long 
awaiting the second attack from their determined foe, who 
soon appeared in sight, advancing at a running pace, with the 
evident design of coming immediately to close quarters, and 
thus avoiding the sustained and destructive fire of their op- 
ponents. The English troops had just time to pour a few 
hasty volleys into the rapidly advancing ranks and then the 
pikemen closed with them. 

The clubbed musket and the bayonet proved in this, as 
in all former contests, but a poor defence against the long 
pike borne by the insurgents. 

In addition to the advantage of the peasantry derived 



The Rising of '98 183 

from such an effective weapon as the pike in such contests as 
we describe, they were themselves in strength and agility 
superior to the royal troops ; and practised in every athletic 
exercise, they wielded their arms with resistless force. The 
issue of the combat might have been foreseen once the in- 
surgents closed with their foes. The regular troops were com- 
pletely routed, and fled in the utmost confusion and terror, 
throwing away their arms and accoutrements to facilitate 
their escape. Yet with all this they were captured in great 
numbers by their swift-footed pursuers, who, as usual, treated 
them with kindness, contrary, as it seemed, to the expectation 
of the fugitives, many of whom were found with their coats 
turned in side out, to denote, doubtless, a corresponding 
change in their sentiments sufficiently great to incline the vic- 
tors to mercy. 

When the contest was over, the gallant Walpole was found 
lying dead beside his charger on the field, while stretched 
around were numbers of killed and wounded. Thus ended 
the engagement at Tubberneering and at Clough. 

Of the above described actions, Mr. Plowden says: 
*'The rebels surprised a division under Colonel Walpole 
at a place called Tubberneering. The rebels poured a tre- 
mendous fire from the fields on both sides of the road, and 
he received a bullet through the head from the first fire. His 
troops fled in the utmost disorder, leaving their cannon in 
the hands of the enemy. They were pursued as far as Grorey, 
in their flight through which they were galled by the fire of 
some of the rebels who had taken station in the houses. The 
unfortunate loyalists of Gorey once more fled to Arklow with 
the routed army, leaving all their effects behind. While Wal- 
pole 's division was attacked by the enemy. General Loftus, 
being within hearing of the musketry, detached seventy men, 
the grenadier company of the Antrim militia, across the fields 
to its assistance, but they were intercepted by the rebels and 
almost all taken or killed. The general, still ignorant of the 
fate of Colonel Walpole 's division, and unable to bring his ar- 
tillery across the fields, continued his march along the high- 
way, by a long circuit, to the field of battle, where he was first 
acquainted with the melancholy event. For some time he fol- 
lowed the rebels toward Gorey, but finding them posted on 
Gorey hill, from which they fired upon him with the cannon 
taken from Colonel Walpole, he retreated to Carnew ; and still, 



184 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

contrary to the opinion of most of his officers, thinking Car- 
new an unsafe place, though at the head of twelve hundred 
effective men, he abandoned that part of the country to the 
rebels, and retreated nine miles farther, to the town of Tul- 
low, in the county of Carlow." 

The insurgents, though wearied by their long march and 
subsequent hard fighting, pushed on rapidly toward Gorey, 
resolved to allow their routed foe no time to put into execu- 
tion the vengeance they were well aware they meditated on 
the prisoners there confined. So closely did they press on 
the flying enemy that the latter had no time to rally their 
broken ranks, or to put into execution their cruel purpose. 
They had barely time to fire into the window of the prison on 
those confined therein, who, at the suggestion of Esmond 
Kyan, one of their number, by throwing themselves on the 
ground, avoided the otherwise fatal volley. On the arrival 
of the insurgents at Gorey, the prisoners, who had thus nar- 
rowly escaped death were set at liberty. 

Esmond Kyan, who understood the management of artil- 
lery, was placed in command of the pieces lately captured. 
The insurgents now pitched their camp on a hill outside the 
town, and there awaited the appearance of General Loftus, 
who, as they were aware, was then on his way to join the 
troops of Walpole, of whose defeat he was yet uninformed. 

On the appearance of this officer, he was received with a 
iwell-directed discharge from the captured cannon. 

This unexpected salute proved too much for the courage 
of Loftus and his soldiers. Seized with panic, they took to 
their heels, and were perceived by some of the mounted in- 
surgents sent after them to ascertain their route, in full flight 
in the direction of Carnew. 

The insurgents, well-nigh exhausted by their previous ex- 
ertions and want of food, did not feel inclined to pursue them, 
and having no cavalry, were forced to allow them to escape 
unmolested. 

The success of these engagements was chiefly due to the 
prompt advance of the insurgents to meet "Walpole on his 
march to Carrigrew, instead of waiting to be attacked by that 
officer and Colonel Loftus at their encampment on the hill. 

By this energetic movement, they disconcerted the plan 
agreed on by two English leaders, and, as we have seen, put 
them both to flight in separate engagements. 



The Rising of '98 185 

Loftus seems to have entertained a salutary dread of the 
pikemen, for it is evident that had he wished to reinforce 
Walpole, he could have easily arrived in time as well as the 
detachment of grenadiers that bore a part in the contest. 

The inhabitants of Gorey and of the surrounding district, 
so many of whom had been rescued from death by the success 
and timely advance of the insurgent army, now came flocking 
around their deliverers, testifying in every way their grati- 
tude for a boon as great as it was unhoped for. Many of them 
declared that on beholding the formidable array on foot, horse 
and artillery that marched out of the town with the joyful 
and proud confidence of men who go to certain victory, they 
entertained but little hope of their ill-armed and undisciplined 
countrymen offering any effectual resistance. 

They, however, affirmed that Walpole felt so confident of 
victory that he had received several wagers that the ''rebels" 
would not sustain for twenty minutes the combined onset of 
the royal forces, aided as they were by more than a dozen of 
yeomen cavalry. 

The insurgents, remembering their surprise at Newtown- 
barry, resolved to take precautions against similar misfor- 
tune, and to this effect they took care to post sentinels at all 
the advances to the town. 

They adopted, moreover, the further precaution of post- 
ing a strong guard on the road to Arklow, whence they deemed 
an attack most likely to be made. However, the arrival of a 
large body of Arklow men at the insurgent camp, with the 
tidings that the royal troops had evacuated the town, set 
them at ease on that point. 

The night of the 4th of June passed away quietly in the 
camp of the brave insurgents, whose dauntless courage suc- 
cess had so happily crowned. 

Here we may mention that such as escaped of the routed 
troops of Walpole, after passing through Gorey, continued 
their flight to Arklow, which they also left behind them, nor 
finally halted till they reached Dublin. The troops com- 
manded by Loftus ended their flight at Tullow. 

These decisive victories made the insurgents masters of 
the entire county of Wexford, with the exception of New- 
townbarry, New Ross and Duncannon Fort, which are situated 
on^ its borders. They had also possession of that part of 
Wicklow which lies between Arklow and the Wexford boun- 



186 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

dary. The gallant Wicklow men had greatly aided their Wex- 
ford neighbors ; and had other counties acted such a noble part 
English rule in Ireland would now be a thing of the past. "It 
was now," says Mr. Teeling, ''that the Irish government be- 
came seriously alarmed. They had kindled a war in the heart 
of the country, and it was doubtful whether they possessed 
the power of extinguishing it. The incessant marching and 
countermarching of troops, the fatigues they encountered, the 
losses they sustained, the several posts they had been forced 
to abandon, all tended to lower that spirit with which they 
were animated on first taking the field. 

Intemperate counsels had placed the country on the brink 
of ruin, and the more reflecting on both sides looked with 
awful suspense to the result. Mr. Fox, ever sensitively alive 
to the honor of his country and the feelings of humanity^ 
again appealed to the British senate, and implored the minis- 
ter to halt in his desperate career, and extend, ere it should 
be too late, the hand of conciliation to Ireland. 

"I hold," said he, "documents incontrovertible which 
show that this sanguinary contest has already cost His Ma- 
jesty *s forces the loss of ten thousand men" ; and, in the name 
of justice and numanity, he moved for an inquiry into the state, 
of Ireland. The feeling and energetic appeal of Mr. Fox was 
ineffectual, and with it the last hope of reconciliation fled. 










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CHAPTER VI. 

THE BATTLE OF ROSS— Ai YOUTHFUL HERO— BRAVERY OF AN IRISH 

WOMAN. 

The division of the insurgent army under the immediate 
command of General-in-Chief Bagenal Harvey, having bivou- 
acked for the night of the 30th near Taghmon, arrived at Car- 
rickburn the next day, where they remained till the 4th of 
June, when they set out for Corbet Hill, within a mile of 
Ross, which town it was decided should be attacked on the 
morning of the ensuing day. The insurgent leaders decided 
that a simultaneous attack should be made on the town at 
three different points. 

Before General Harvey issued orders for the assault he 
despatched an aide-de-camp named Furlong with a flag of 
truce to summon the garrison to surrender. 

This commission proved fatal to the bearer, for scarce 
had Furlong approached within view of the outpost, bearing 
aloft the flag of truce, than he was fired on by a sentinel and 
fell mortally wounded. In his pocket was found the following 
letter from Harvey to General Johnson: 

''Sir— As a friend to humanity, I request you will sur- 
render the town of Ross to the Wexford forces now assembled 
against that town. Your resistance will but provoke rapine 
and plunder, to the ruin of the innocent. Flushed with vic- 
tory, the Wexford forces, now innumerable and irresistible, 
will not be controlled if they meet with resistance. To pre- 
vent, therefore, the total ruin of all property in the town, I 
urge you to a speedy surrender, which you will be forced to 
in a few hours, with loss and bloodshed, as you are surrounded 
on all sides. Your answer is required in four hours. Mr. 
Furlong carries this letter and will bring the answer. 

''I am, sir, 
"B. B. Harvey, General Commanding-in-Chief. 
"Camp at Corbet Hill, half past three o'clock in the 
morning, June 25, 1798." 

This shooting of bearers of flags of truce seems to have 
been quite a matter of course with the military. It, however, 
taught the insurgents that they should neither show mercy to, 

187 



188 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

nor expect it from, siicli a faithless foe, and doubtless led to 
the death of Lord Mount joy soon after, as he advanced before 
his regiment with the intention of parleying with them while 
advancing. 

The town of Eoss, about to be the scene of a bloody con- 
test, was garrisoned by about two thousand regular troops, 
under the command of General Johnson, in addition to which 
large force there were several corps of yeomanry. Eoss was 
at this time a walled town, and the principal entrance from 
the southern side was by the Three-bullet Gate. Towards this 
gate the road by which the insurgents were about to advance 
led in nearly a straight line, with a high ditch at either side. 
The fields extended to within a few perches of the wall, and 
were enclosed by ditches similar to those which bounded the 
road. General Johnson, rightly judging that the principal at- 
tack would be made on this gate, had posted thereat a strong 
force in the most advantageous positions within and without, 
while two six-pounders were planted so as to pour their fire 
upon any body of men advancing along the road before men- 
tioned. Behind the ditches on either side of the road, and in 
every other available cover, soldiers were placed to gall with 
their fire the expected assailants. It must be admitted that 
to force an entrance through a post so well guarded was an 
enterprise of no easy nature, but yet the undisciplined and 
ill-armed insurgents undertook and effected the task. 

All who have written of the eventful period vary materi- 
ally in their accounts of the battle of Eoss. Hay, who seems to 
be at much pains to obtain accurate information, gives what 
he, no doubt, believed to be a correct account of the engage- 
ment, while Clooney, who took an active part in the affair, 
differs from him in many important particulars. Both these 
impartial writers concur, however, in stating that the greater 
number of the men who formed the camp on Corbet Hill took 
no part in the battle, and that one of the divisional leaders 
deserted his post at the very beginning of the assault. It ap- 
pears that not more than three thousand men took part in 
the assault, and that great part even of these left before the 
battle was finally decided. While the insurgents ' officers were 
marshalling their men as best they could preparatory to the 
attack, they were much annoyed and sustained some loss by 
a sharp fire maintained by the enemy's outposts. Seeing this. 
General Harvey ordered Colonel Kelly to charge, and drive 



The Rising of '98 189 

in these outposts with the battalion of Bantry men under his 
command. This order the brave young colonel so well obeyed 
that he drove them before him in confusion to the very walls 
of the town. Kelly found it much easier to lead his men to 
the charge than to withdraw them from it, and they were 
soon hotly engaged with the defenders of the gate, Clooney, 
who had commanded a similar battalion of Bantry men, and 
had been ordered by Harvey to support Kelly, now rushed 
forward to join in the fray. The main body of the insurgents, 
seeing their comrades in actual conflict with the enemy could 
no longer be restrained, and, despite the efforts of their 
leaders, poured down swiftly towards the scene of strife. This 
ardor, so natural in undisciplined men, entirely disconcerted 
the original plan of assault. The entire battle was now fought 
between the defenders of the gate and their assailants. From 
the gates, from the walls, and from the ditches, the military 
poured a close and terrible fire on the fierce assailants, who, 
though thy fell in great numbers under a withering fire, still 
kept rushing forward with matchless intrepidity to supply 
the place of their fallen comrades. 

Even those who write in the bitterest spirit of hostility to 
the insurgents, speak of their conduct on this occasion in the 
following terms: ''Such was their enthusiasm that, though 
whole ranks of men were seen to fall, they were succeeded 
by others, who seemed to court the fate of their companions 
by rushing on our troops with renovated ardor." (Sir Eich- 
ard Musgrave.) 

An English officer, forced into an involuntary admiration 
of the reckless bravery with which those devoted people 
fought, exclaimed, ''that the devils out of hell could not resist 
them!" After half an hour of this desperate fighting the 
soldiery began to fall back inside the gate, while their assail- 
ants took possession of the barracks, which stood a short dis- 
tance from the wall. Here it was that the young hero, Colonel 
Kelly, was disabled by a shot in the thigh. At this period of 
the fight a strong squadron of the Fifth Dragoon Guards made 
a sally from the town by a lane, hoping to take the insurgents 
in the rear. This, however, they failed to do, and were them- 
selves charged by the fierce pikemen, who in a few minutes 
slew twenty-eight of their number, together with their cor- 
net, Dodwell. An amazon named Doyle, who marched with 
the insurgent army and bore herself as gallantly as the most 



190 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

courageous man, now made herself useful by cutting off with 
a billhook the crossbelts of the fallen dragoons, and handing 
them, together with the cartouche boxes, to her comrades. 

The insurgents having by this time won the gate, General 
Johnson judged it time to sound a retreat, which signal was 
obeyed by his troops with more speed than dignity, while their 
successful opponents, with shouts of triumph, poured into the 
town for whose possession they had so bravely contended. 

Though General Johnson, with the main body of his troops, 
had evacuated the town, yet the insurgents could not be con- 
sidered complete masters of it, for the main guard of the hos- 
tile army, with two swivel guns, still kept possession of the 
market place, while Major Vandeleur, with the Clare Militia, 
still maintained his ground at a suburb called Irishtown. Great 
numbers of the insurgents were now dispersed throughout 
the town in search of some refreshments, which they sorely 
needed. 

Some writers assert that on this occasion the peasantry 
gave way to intemperance, and thereby lost the battle; but 
their fault, in this particular, has been greatly exaggerated, 
and it is clear that the subsequent loss of the town was not 
wholly owing to intemperance. Many of the peasantry who 
had taken part in the attack upon the town had already de- 
parted for their homes, great numbers of the bravest men 
had been slain, and those that remained in partial possession 
of the town were well nigh exhausted by continual exertion, 
that proved too much even for their hardy, vigorous frames. 

The town remained in possession of its new masters for 
some four hours. During this time Colonel S. Clooney col- 
lected all the men he could to follow him (and, strange to say, 
he could not find more than forty), and led them first to dis- 
lodge the guard that still kept possession of the market-place ; 
but he was received with so hot a fire from the men that held 
the building, that he was forced to retreat. Foiled in this at- 
tempt, the same brave and energetic chief proceeded, with 
his small body of men, to drive the Clare Militia from their 
position at Irishtown. 

This was evidently an enterprise of a desperate nature, 
but Clooney, who seems to have been a man of extraordinary 
daring, did not seem to think so. He led his handful of weary 
men across two fields, all the while exposed to the fire of the. 
enemy, but naively confesses that he could not get them to 



The Rising of '98 191 

mount a ditch, that separated them from their far more numer- 
ous foes. 

Meantime General Johnson, who, with the main body of 
his army, had been compelled, as we have seen, to beat a 
hasty retreat from the town, finding himself unmolested in 
his retreat, altered his previous determination of altogether 
abandoning the place to the insurgents, and resolved to make 
a final effort to regain possession of it. The County of Dublin 
Militia, burning to avenge the death of their colonel, Lord 
Mountjoy, led the advance. The result might have been antici- 
pated ; they found their enemies dispersed through the town, 
unprepared for the attack, and succeeded in driving them 
out. The insurgents, whom defeat had once more united, soon 
renewed the attack with marvellous courage. Once more these 
dauntless men rushed upon their disciplined foes and, de- 
spite the fearful carnage made in their ranks by the terrible 
fire poured upon tKem, they charged, pike in hand, to the very 
muzzle of the musket and the mouth of the cannon, and drove 
the soldiery in precipitate flight from the town. 

Hay states that on this occasion, as on that of their pre- 
vious success, the victorious insurgents indulged in intemper- 
ance. But this statement must be regarded as at least doubt- 
ful, and the victory finally won by the king's troops must be 
attributed to the havoc made in the insurgent ranks by the 
long-continued fire of the artillery and musketry. 

Soon after this repulse the troops returned once more to 
the assault, and the victory crowned their persevering brav- 
ery. After an almost continuous fight of thirteen hours ' dura- 
tion, victory finally rested upon the royal standard. This con- 
test, though it may be deemed inconsiderable with regard to 
the numbers therein engaged, has never been surpassed in the 
annals of war for the bravery and determination displayed by 
the combatants on both sides. Clooney, who is a truthful and 
impartial writer, estimates the loss of both contending hosts 
to have been nearly equal, that is, about three hundred killed 
and five hundred wounded on either side. As for the ac- 
counts given by such writers as were professed partisans of 
the government they are utterly unworthy of credit, as they 
are proved to have been guilty of systematic and deliberate 
falsehood and exaggeration. 

I am inclined to believe that Mr. Clooney, in his desire not 
to exaggerate, greatly underrates the loss sustained in this 



1.92 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

action. Taking into account the fierceness of the struggle and 
its duration, it is impossible to place it so low. Sir Jonah 
Barrington estimates the loss on both sides to have been far 
greater, and is of opinion that upwards of 5,000 men were 
either killed or consumed by the conflagration. The same 
author relates a singular incident that occurred during the 
battle: The insurgents were on the point of being finally 
repulsed, when a young gentleman of thirteen years of age, 
from the town of Wexford, of the respectable family of Lett, 
in that town, who had stolen away from his mother and joined 
General Harvey on Corbet Hill, saw the disorder of the men 
and the incapacity of their leaders, and with a boyish impulse 
he snatched up a standard, and, calling out, '^ Follow me who 
dare ! ' ' rushed down the hill, two or three thousand pikemen 
rapidly following him in a tumultuous crowd, and uttering the 
most appalling cries. In a moment he was at the gate, rallied 
his party, and with his reinforcement, rushed upon the garri- 
son, who, fatigued and astonished at the renewed vigor of 
their enemy, were again borne down and compelled, with 
much loss, fighting step by step, to retire towards the bridge. 

This was, perhaps, the most important engagement of the 
entire insurrection, and had the insurgents succeeded, the 
final event might have been far different. General Harvey 
now ordered a retreat to be sounded, and the dispirited in- 
surgents marched off to their former encampment on Car- 
rickburn, unmolested in their retreat by the enemy, who were 
content with the success they had achieved. The intrepid 
woman, Doyle, before mentioned, seeing the insurgents about 
to quit the scene of their late combat, and leave a gun they 
had brought with them behind, seated herself upon it, and 
spiritedly declared that if ' ' they did not bring her dear little 
gun with them she would remain behind also at all risks." 
Ashamed not to comply with the request of the heroine, some 
of the weary men gave her their aid in conveying away her 
strange favorite. 

We must now proceed unwillingly to record a deed of 
savage cruelty perpetrated by some of the dastardly runa- 
ways from the battle of Eoss. That the brave men who took 
part in that combat had no share in the savage deed is dis- 
tinctly stated by Clooney. Alas! that such recreants had 
power to stain the otherwise unblemished laurels of the brave 
insurgents of Wexford. 



The Rising of '98 193 

The burning of Scullabogne has often been cited as an in- 
stance of fiendish cruelty. We seek not to paint it otherwise. 
If it proves anything, it is that there were men amongst the 
insurgents as cruel and cowardly as amongst their enemies, 
but their number must have been far smaller in proportion, 
nor do we find that the insurgent leaders encouraged their 
followers to the perpetration of such excesses, but on the con- 
trary, that they did all in their power to prevent them. Can 
the apologists or panegyrists of the English soldiery or of 
their more savage allies say with truth as much in their de- 
fense? For one black deed such as the one now referred to, 
we can cite hundreds perpetrated by the partisans of English 
rule, not in the madness of passion but with cold-blooded de- 
liberation. For instance, the insurgent depot of wounded 
men burned in New Ross by the military, the insurgent hos- 
pital at Enniscorthy by the yeoman and the murder by the mi- 
litia and yeomanry of the sick and wounded insurgents in the 
hospital of Wexford, when the royalists took possession of 
that town. An entire chapter might be filled with instances of 
similar ruthless deeds perpetrated by military, militia and 
yeomanry. 

We must now proceed to describe what occurred at Sculla- 
bogue. Before the insurgents marched to the attack in Ross, 
they despatched their prisoners, to the number of about one 
hundred, to be confined in the barn of Scullabogue House, at 
the foot of Carrickburn, and there stationed a guard over 
them. Of these prisoners we may mention that some twenty 
were Catholics, and when we say that the remainder were 
Protestants, it must be remembered that the majority of per- 
sons professing Protestantism had manifested by every means 
in their power the bitterest hostility to their insurgent coun- 
trymen in their desperate struggle for liberty, so that they 
were confined, not as Protestants, but as persons who in a life 
and death struggle had ranged themselves under a hostile 
standard. While the battle was raging at Ross, runaways 
from both armies filled the country around with the most 
contradictory rumors. At length it was known that the day 
had gone against the insurgents. The minds of the people 
were much inflamed by the account of the shooting of the 
bearer of the flag of truce, the burning of houses with their 
inmates, and the indiscriminate slaughter by the soldiery. 

Popular fury is wild and unreasoning, and destructive in 



194 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

its course as a liurrieane, and only requires an object on 
which to wreak its vengeance ; in this instance, unhappily, the 
object was at hand— the unfortunate prisoners in the barn at 
ScuUabogue. Thither rushed an infuriated crowd, composed 
mainly of runaways from the battle of Ross, and others who 
were driven by a thirst for vengeance for their own wrongs 
to take part in the cruel deed which ensued. In vain Murphy, 
the captain of the guard, resisted at the peril of his own life- 
he and his men were fiercely thrust aside, and fuel was im- 
mediately applied to the walls of the barn. In vain did the 
victims endeavor to escape ; they came forth from the burning 
fabric but to fall by the pikes of the savage mob. Those who 
remained within screamed and implored mercy in piteous ac- 
cents. But why prolong the description of such a revolting 
scene? The barn with all the unfortunate beings it contained, 
was consumed in the flames. Their terrible revenge being 
accomplished, the murderers dispersed. The brave men who 
had fought at Ross heard on their return to Carrickburn with 
horror and regret of this detestable act of cruelty, and with- 
out a doubt had they then discovered the murderers they 
would have inflicted on them such punishment as they de- 
served. 

Of this horrid transaction Mr. Plowden discourses as fol- 
lows: '' Bloody as was the carnage at New Ross, where the 
rebels were said to have lost between two and three thousand 
men, the horrors of that scene vanish before the inhuman mas- 
sacre of a number of unfortunate prisoners, men, women and 
children, mostly Protestants, burned to death in a barn at 
ScuUabogue on the evening of that same day. ScuUabogue 
House, which is the property of a Mr. Kind, was situated at 
the foot of Carrickburn Mountain. When the rebel army 
marched to Corbet Hill, their prisoners had been left under 
a guard, commanded by John Murphy, of Longhnaghur. The 
runaways declared that the royal army in Ross were shooting 
all the prisoners, and butchering the Catholics who had fallen 
into their hands, and feigned an order from Harvey for the 
execution of those at ScuUabogue. This order which Harvey, 
himself a Protestant, and a man of humanity, was utterly in- 
capable of giving, Murphy is said to have resisted, but his 
resistance was in vain. Thirty-seven were shot and piked 
at the hall-door; and the rest, one hundred and eighty- four 
in number, according to report, crammed into a barn, were 



The Rising of 'OS 195 

burned alive, the roof being fired, and straw thrown into the 
flames to feed the conflagration." 

In the same year in which the above detailed massacre was 
enacted, a gentleman named Frizel, who was amongst the 
prisoners, was examined at the Bar of the House of Com- 
mons concerning the affair. He was asked every question that 
could be suggested relative to the massacre, to which his 
answers were substantially as follows: ''That having been 
taken prisoner by a party of the rebels, he was confined to a 
room on the ground floor in Scull abogue House, with twenty 
or thirty other persons ; that a rebel guard with a pike stood 
near the window, with whom he conversed ; that persons were 
frequently called out of the room in which we was, by name, 
and he believes were soon after shot, as he heard the report of 
muskets shortly after they had been called out; and that he 
understood that many were burned in the barn, the smoke of 
which he could discover from the window; that the sentinel 
pikeman assured him that they would not hurt a hair of his 
head, as he was always known to have behaved well to the 
poor; that he did not know of his own knowledge, but only 
from the reports current amongst the prisoners what the par- 
ticular cause was for which the rebels had set fire to the barn." 
Upon which Mr. Ogle rose with precipitancy from his seat, 
and put this question to him with great eagerness : ' ' Sir, tell 
us what the cause was!" 

It having been suggested that the question would be more 
regularly put from the chair, it was repeated to him in that 
form, and Mr. Frizel answered, that the only cause he, or he 
believed the other prisoners, ever understood induced the 
rebels to this action was, that they had received intelligence 
that the military were again putting all the rebel prisoners to 
death in the town of Eoss as they had done at Dunlavin and 
Carlow. Mr. Ogle asked no more questions of Mr. Frizel, and 
he was soon afterwards dismissed from the bar. 

With a view to putting a stop to any repetition of such 
disgraceful and barbarous deeds. General Harvey immedi- 
ately issued a proclamation, in which he threatened death to 
all who should, under any pretext, be guilty of outrages to 
person or property. This proclamation was as follows : 

"At a meeting of the general and several officers of the 
united army of the county of Wexford, the following resolu- 
tions were agreed upon: 



196 Ireland's Crown op Thorns and Roses 

''Resolved, That tlie commander-in-cliief shall send guards 
to certain baronies, for the purpose of bringing in all men 
they shall find loitering and delaying at home, or elsewhere ; 
and that if any resistance be given to those guards so to be 
sent by the commanding officer's orders, it is our desire and 
orders that such persons so giving resistance shall be liable 
to be put to death by the guards who are to bear a commission 
for that purpose ; and all such persons found to be loitering 
and delaying at home, when brought in by the guards, shall 
be tried by courtmartial, appointed and chosen from among 
the commanders of all the different corps, and be punished 
with death. 

''Resolved, That all officers shall immediately repair to 
their respective quarters, and remain with their different 
corps, and not depart therefrom under pain of death, unless 
authorized to quit by written orders from the commander-in- 
chief for that purpose. It is also ordered that a guard shall 
be kept in the rear of the different armies, with orders to shoot 
all persons who shall fly or desert from any engagement, and 
that these orders shall be taken notice of by all officers com- 
manding in such engagement. All men refusing to obey their 
superior officers, to be tried by courtmartial and punished ac- 
cording to their sentence. It is also ordered that all men who 
shall attempt to leave their respective quarters where they 
have been halted by the commander-in-chief, shall suffer 
death, unless they shall have leave from their officers for so 
doing. It is ordered by the commander-in-chief, that all per- 
sons who have stolen or taken away any horse or horses, shall 
immediately bring in such horses to the camp, at headquar- 
ters, otherwise for any horse that shall be seen or found in 
the possession of any person to whom he does not belong, that 
person shall, on being convicted thereof, suffer death. And 
any goods that shall have been plundered from any house, if 
not brought into headquarters, or returned immediately .to 
the houses or owners, that all persons so plundering as afore- 
said, shall, on being convicted thereof, suffer death. 

"It is also resolved, that any person or persons who shall 
take upon them to kill or murder any person or persons, or 
burn any house, or commit any plunder, without special writ- 
ten orders from the commander-in-chief, shall suffer death. 

By order of, "B. B. Harvey, Commander-in-Chief. 

"Francis Breen, Sec. and Adj. 

** Headquarters, Carrickbyrne, Camp, June 6, 1798,'^ 



The Rising of '98 



197 



In Wexford town a similar proclamation was issued about 
the same time. 

The above given proclamation was the last issued by 
Bagenal Harvey, for there were loud murmurs against him 
arising from his conduct at the battle of Ross. He soon after 
resigned his command and was succeeded therein by the Rev. 
General Philip Roche. 

On the third day after the disastrous battle of Ross, the 
insurgents quitted Carrickburn Hill, and proceeded to that of 
Slieve Kielter, near which eminence flows the river Barrow. 
On the first day of their encampment on this hill, they captured 
a gunboat which, with two others that escaped, was on its 
way to Waterford. On board they found, amongst other 
things, despatches from military officers concerning various 
engagements that had taken place between the insurgents and 
the King's troops. These reports were found, on examination, 
exaggerated and one-sided in the extreme— the loss of the in- 
surgents in every engagement was enormously exaggerated, 
and that of the royal troops proportionately diminished. Our 
readers may judge of the value of such histories, such as Mus- 
grave's and Maxwell's, compiled from such truthful docu- 
ments. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER VII. 

LACK OF PROVISIONS— LEARNING TO ACQUIRE MILITARY DISCIPLINE 

— THE PIKE MEN. 

The second division of the insurgent army, by whom Gen- 
erals Walpole and Loftus had been so signally defeated, re- 
mained during the 5th and 6th of June in their encampment on 
Gorey Hill, employing this interval of comparative repose in 
acquiring further knowledge of military movements, and in 
sending out reconnoitering parties to ascertain the move- 
ments of the enemy, or in procuring such provisions as were 
necessary for the sustenance of their numerous army, which 
this time amounted to about fifteen thousand men. The lat- 
ter task they found a rather arduous one, for the hordes of 
Orangemen, corps of yeomanry, and bodies of regular troops, 
had subsisted at the cost of the unfortunate people for months ; 
and not content with taking by force what they required, they 
wantonly destroyed what they could not use. Under these 
circumstances the requisitionists from the insurgent camp 
found it extremely difficult to obtain the necessary supplies. 
It was in one of these forays that the house of Hunter Gowan, 
of infamous memory, was burned— an inadequate retaliation, 
indeed, for the fiendish deeds of cruelty perpetrated by the 
inhuman villain. At length the insurgent chiefs deemed the 
time was come when the attack on Carnew should be made, 
and, accordingly, they left their camp on Gorey Hill, and di- 
rected their march toward that town on the 7th, about mid- 
day. 

Towards evening, the insurgents drew near Carnew, and 
encamped on Kilcavan Hill, in the vicinity of the town. This 
march on Carnew had been made to satisfy the people of that 
town and the surrounding neighborhood, who had suffered 
extremely from the cruelty of their enemies, who had long 
trampled on them without mercy, till, driven to madness by 
their unprovoked wrongs, they breathed nothing but a spirit 
of revenge and retaliation. 

This spirit manifested itself in the burning of the houses 
of their persecutors, and as Carnew was mainly inhabited by 
Orangemen, it was in a great measure destroyed. Yet, ex- 

199 



200 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

traordinary to relate, though the oppressed inhabitants of 
Carnew had now many of their enemies completely in their 
power, it does not appear that any of them suffered death at 
their hands. This, under the circumstances, was a marvellous 
instance of forbearance, considering the cruel wrongs they had 
sustained. Some, however, of the Orange inhabitants were 
detained as hostages, with the intention of exchanging them 
for prisoners in the hands of the yeomanry. In the meantime, 
General Loftus, having heard of the intended advance of the 
insurgents on Carnew, had marched out of the town, and has- 
tened to shut himself up in Tullow, where he thought himself 
at a secure distance from a foe he had now been taught to 
dread. 

The English general could well estimate the advantage of 
fighting behind trenches, where he could use musket and can- 
non against men whose chief arm was the pike. The unwel- 
come tidings having reached the camp on Kilcavan Hill that 
the town of Arklow had been occupied by the royal troops in 
great force, it was forthwith determined by the insurgents to 
return to their former position on Gorey Hill, and there pre- 
pare for an attack on the retaken town. 

The insurgents rightly deemed that the crisis in their for- 
tunes had arrived, and that to drive the formidable force of 
English troops out of Arklow would task their utmost ener- 
gies, sadly deficient as they were in some of the chief requi- 
sites for the undertaking. They had numbers of brave men, it 
is true, but the greater part of them were armed with a weapon 
that, though unequaled in close fight, was of little use against 
an army who fought from behind an entrenched position. The 
artillery of the insurgents was insignificant, both as to the 
number of pieces and their calibre, and, though useful against 
an enemy in the open field, proved inefficient when the latter 
took refuge behind stone walls or earthen entrenchments. In 
addition to the serious disadvantages, the amunition for the 
few smaller firearms in the possession of the insurgents was 
well-nigh exhausted, and they had no means of obtaining a 
sufficient supply. This was but partially supplied by the ar- 
rival of a small barrel of powder from Wexford, sent with 
great reluctance, the inhabitants affirming that it was needed 
for the defence of the town. 

Thus it will be seen that the insurgents were but poorly 
provided with every munition of war, and notwithstanding, 



The Rising of '98 201 

relying on their own dauntless courage, they resolved to con- 
tinue the contest. The continued success that had hitherto 
attended their army must be attributed in a great measure to 
the excellent qualities of the gallant men who led them to 
fight. Amongst those may be mentioned Anthony Perry, Es- 
mond Kyan, together with the heroic and faithful priests, 
Fathers John and Michael Murphy. 

Father John continued to be the idol of the brave men 
whom he led, and who admired in him the perfection of their 
own courage— always fighting in the foremost ranks, ever 
ready to cheer and rally those who wavered in the fight, skil- 
ful and cool after the battle to improve the victory, kind to 
console and warm with his own heroic ardor the humblest of 
his followers when their spirits, less lofty and less firm than 
his, drooped under the calamities of unequal war. 

His matchless daring excited the admiration even of the 
bravest. The men fought like lions in his presence, and see- 
ing him fearlessly exposing himself where danger was most 
rife, they were emulous of imitating a leader who evinced such 
a noble contempt for the perils of the fight. 

But mere personal bravery, however great, either in the 
chiefs or those they led, could not fully compensate for the 
lack of military discipline. It is unity of action and con- 
centration of power that form the strength of an army. This 
truth was keenly felt by the insurgents. To acquire this chief 
element of power, they had from the outset directed their ef- 
forts. To this end they conducted as closely as they could 
the order observed by regular troops, forming themselves 
into companies and regiments, appointing their captains, col- 
onels, and generals, holding councils of war before undertak- 
ing any important enterprise, and posting sentinels around 
their camps. 

As the insurrection went on the recruits they received 
from the yeomanry and militia enabled them to make a more 
rapid advance towards acquiring the discipline they sought. 

All the time not engaged in actual combat was devoted to 
the practice of military manoeuvres. The intelligent peas- 
antry showed remarkable capacity for profiting by the instruc- 
tions they received, so that after a short while they were able 
to perform, though in an imperfect fashion, the ordinary mili- 
tary evolutions. 

In consequence, we find them every day more capable of 
coping with their disciplined enemies. 



202 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

In one instance we see them maintaining for several hours 
a fight with a superior number of royal troops under a brave 
and able general, and retiring unpursued when their ammuni- 
tion was exhausted. From these facts it is plain that to drive 
a brave people into insurrection is a dangerous experiment for 
any Government to make ; for every day of continued warfare 
renders the insurgents more capable of contending with regu- 
lar troops, giving them confidence in their own strength and 
skill in the use of arms. 

This was so evident during the contest in Wexford that 
many persons competent to form a correct opinion on the mat- 
ter did not hesitate to afl&rm that had the rest of Ireland af- 
forded any assistance to the Wexford men, the Government 
would have found it impossible to quell the insurrection. The 
greatest obstacle to their success was the lack of gunpowder, 
which they did not manufacture. 

The greatest number of the bravest and most efficient 
men in the insurgent army were farmers or their sons, who, 
being keen sportsmen, were consequently good marksmen. 
Many of these were provided with the long guns used in 
fowling upon the Slaney, excellent weapons, which sent a 
bullet farther than the muskets of the soldiery. The num- 
ber of insurgents, however, who were furnished with firearms 
of any description was small compared with that of those 
men whose only weapon was the pike. But this weapon, 
though excellent, was useless save in a close fight. Then, 
indeed, it was irresistible. No force of cavalry could break 
a square of embattled pikemen, nor could anybody of horse 
or foot long withstand the shock of their headlong onset. 

A sharpened hook on one side of the pike blade was used 
in cutting the bridle of the cavalry soldier, and this once 
severed, his horse became unmanageable and he himself com- 
pletely at the mercy of his opponent. The author was in- 
formed by an old insurgent who had fought at Vinegar Hill, 
Oulart, and Arklow, that all the pikemen required was "to get 
at the soldiery. ' ' 

But this was the difficulty. To advance in the face of a 
body of soldiery pouring in amongst them a destructive fire, 
to which they could not reply, would be wanton loss of life, 
and was in consequence a course rarely adopted by the in- 
surgents save when the lack of ammunition left them no 
alternative. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MOEE ABOUT THE OEANGEMEN AND THEIR ATROCITIES— LIBERALITY 
OF THE CATHOLICS— SEVERE MEASURES AT VINEGAR HILL. 

Wexford county was now the scene of a war which, con- 
sidering the numbers engaged, and the fierceness wherewith 
it was waged, was altogether disproportionate to its narrow 
area. The royal troops within the limits of this one county 
could not have amounted to less than 90,000 men, including 
the yeomanry, whose large force was being every day aug- 
mented, while the peasantry who bore arms of any sort did 
not amount to more than 30,000 men. On one side was dis- 
cipline and almost unlimited resources, on the other side was 
seen only the desperate bravery of the men who fought for 
life and freedom. It had now become a struggle for victory, 
or death— success or utter destruction between the contend- 
ing parties. Scenes of bloodshed and cruelty continually ex- 
hibited were beginning to work their effect on the minds of 
the people, who, seeing that when vanquished they received 
no mercy at the hands of the enemy, resolved on their part to 
show none. 

In the school of bloodshed Orangemen were the principal 
masters, and against them the popular vengeance was chiefly 
directed. From the many deeds of cruelty and constant re- 
taliation we may cite the following, which are well authenti- 
cated : 

"When the insurgents obtained possession of Enniscorthy, 
they found the dead body of a drummer of the North Cork 
Militia hanging in the lodgings of a Mr. Hancock, a Protest- 
tant minister and a magistrate, and having learned, on in- 
quiry, that he had been put to death by the Orangemen for 
refusing to join in playing certain offensive party tunes, they 
naturally considered him as a martyr to their cause, and 
proceeded to avenge his death by shooting several of the 
most noted Orangemen among their prisoners. Hay also 
mentioned that the insurgents, in revenge for the cruel mur- 
der of an idiot boy near the bridge of Scarawalsh by a party 
of cavalry, shot fourteen of their prisoners. If such cruel 
deeds were enacted occasionally under the impulse of ungov- 

203 



204 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ernable passion by the peasantry, they were habitually prac- 
tised in cold blood and as a matter of course by their enemies. 

On the departure of the great body of insurgents on the 
31st of May, those of their brethren who remained, aided by 
the populace of the town, instituted a search for such Orange- 
men as yet remained at large, with the intention of consigning 
them to prison. 

The first they went in quest of was Mr. Turner of New- 
park, a magistrate, who had incurred their resentment by set- 
ting fire to some houses at Oulart previous to the battle 
fought at that place on the 27th. Having found the gentleman 
in question at Mr. Harvey's lodgings they seized upon him, 
and forthwith led him down to prison, disregarding the en- 
treaties made by Messrs. Harvey, Hay and Fitzgerald in his 
favor. Several of the most obnoxious of the prisoners having 
been previously liberated through the influence of their 
friends, the people now insisted that no one should be freed 
from confinement in this irregular manner, but only on pro- 
ducing a certificate of their former good conduct, signed by a 
sufficient number of their neighbors. On the same day that 
the above detailed incidents occurred. Captain Keough was 
chosen military governor of Wexford. Under his supervision 
the town was divided into wards, each furnishing a company 
of armed men, with officers of their own choice. Every even- 
ing these companies were paraded on the quay, while with 
military regularity guards were struck off and relieved, and 
passwords, and countersigns given. In the country parishes 
a similar organization was soon after adopted. While the 
insurgent army yet remained in deliberation on Windmill-hill, 
a large body of the men of the barony of Forth marched into 
the town, with Mr. Cornelius Grogan, of Johnstown Castle, at 
their head. This aged gentleman, though entirely passive in 
these proceedings, did not escape the vengeance that fell on no 
more guiltless head, but his fate was nobler than that which 
befell his brother Thomas, who was slain at Arklow leading 
the Castletown yeomanry against the pikemen. 

We must not forget to mention that in the council of war 
held by the insurgents on Windmill-Hill, before setting out on 
their new campaign, Mr. Bagenal Harvey was chosen com- 
mander-in-chief. This selection was most ill-judged, for Har- 
vey, though in many respects an excellent man, was not pos- 
sessed of talents to qualify him for such an important com- 



The Rising of '98 205 

mand. It must, however, be regarded by all fair-minded per- 
sons as a proof that the Catholics, who form such a vast ma- 
jority of the population of Ireland, are far too generous and 
enlightened to entertain rancour against those who differ 
from them in their views of religious truth, but on the con- 
trary, have ever shown themselves enthusiastically grateful 
to such Protestants as have been willing to join them in their 
struggle for freedom. As a futher evidence of this truth we 
may state the fact that the greater number of their chosen 
chiefs were Protestants or Presbyterians, and no voice was 
ever raised amongst their followers to reproach or taunt them 
with the fact. 

The Wexford insurgents, fully sensible of the desperate 
nature of the struggle upon which they had entered, displayed 
the utmost energy in the efforts they made to carry it on suc- 
cessfully. Every smith and carpenter in the town of Wex- 
ford and its environs was now hard at work in the fabrication 
of blades and handles to that ''queen of weapons, the pike.'* 

In a short time every insurgent was provided with one of 
these efficient weapons ; and while every hand grasped a pike, 
every hat displayed a green cockade. 

Four oyster boats, each manned with a crew of thirty-five 
men, were fitted out to cruise in the offing, and by boarding 
passing ships to obtain provisions, which were sorely needed, 
as the usual markets were quite deserted. At the same time 
two pieces of cannon were mounted on the old fort of Ross- 
lare, to fire on any vessel of war that should attempt to cross 
the bar; while, to render still more difficult the entrance of 
such vessels, two sloops were sunk at the mouth of the harbor. 

As an indication of the hopes the people entertained at this 
period of severing their connection with England and shaking 
off the yoke that had galled them for centuries, bank notes 
issued by establishments that had Government security were 
regarded as quite valueless, specie alone being proffered or 
accepted in buying or selling. Indeed, so low had paper money 
fallen in the common estimation that it was no unusual thing 
to see men lighting their pipes with them, or using them as 
gun wadding. However, money in any shape was little need- 
ed, for every kind of provision was supplied from the public 
stores, on the presentation of a ticket from the committee. 
Such persons as preferred to purchase what they needed in 
the market could get good meat at one penny a pound, and 



206 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

other commodities at a proportionately cheap rate. 

The little fleet of armed oyster boats was meantime active- 
ly employed in cruising to and fro outside the harbor, and 
boarding such vessels as were so unlucky as to come within 
their reach. Captures of this kind, made by their exertions, 
were so numerous that a fair supply of provisions was main- 
tained in town, and the wants of the inhabitants supplied. 
But on the 20th one of these little vessels alighted upon a prize 
of a different nature from any that had been hitherto made. 
This was a vessel, on board of which they found Lord Kings- 
borough, Colonel of the North Cork Militia, with two of his 
officers, who, unaware that Wexford had fallen into the hands 
of the insurgents, were on their way thither to join their regi- 
ment. These gentlemen were brought into town by their cap- 
tors; and on arriving there were conducted first to the resi- 
dence of Captain Keough, whence they were soon after, at the 
urgent demand of the people, transferred to a house in the 
bull-ring (an inn called the Cape of Good Hope), around which 
guards were stationed to prevent their escape. This hap- 
pened on the 2nd of June. On the following day a large body 
of the inhabitants of the barony of Forth, who had procured 
arms, passed through the town on their way to join the in- 
surgents at Carrickbyrne ; and a corps from the Faythe (a 
"Wexford suburb inhabited chiefly by the families of seafaring 
men) set off on the evening of the same day for the camp at 
Carrigrew. 

During this time, while the Catholic party in Wexford en- 
joyed undisputed sway, not the slightest disposition was mani- 
fested by them to injure or outrage in any way their Protest- 
ant fellow-townsmen. The resentment of the people was 
directed exclusively against Orangemen. This fact is, perhaps 
inadvertently, acknowledged even by Sir Richard Musgrave. 

But the Protestants were ill at ease, and evinced their 
distrust of the sincerity of their fellow-townsmen, though so 
unequivocally expressed, by the constant importunities where- 
with they assailed the priests for admittance into the Catholic 
Church. However, the Catholic clergy, being well convinced 
of the real motive of this sudden change in religious opinions, 
firmly refused to comply with their request. But these strange 
converts were not to be put off. They followed the priests 
wherever they went, were constant in their attendance at the 
Catholic church, and showed their earnestness while there by^ 



The Rising of '98 207 

sprinkling holy water copiously over tHeir persons, and fre- 
quently making the sign of the cross in the most orthodox 
fashion. It was afterwards noticed that some of the most 
zealous of these converts were the most prompt is coming 
forward to give their testimony against those whose religious 
faith they pretended to adopt. Thus it was that cowardice 
and cruelty are generally to be found in company. The prin- 
cipal Catholic inhabitants in the town used their utmost en- 
deavors to banish all apprehension from the minds of their 
heterodox brethren, and requested that the services which 
had been discontinued in the Protestant church should be car- 
ried on as usual. But to this the Protestants themselves would 
by no means give their consent. No truth, indeed, has been 
more clearly shown forth than that the Catholics of Wexford 
were possessed by no persecuting spirit. Traitors were pun- 
ished with the same impartial justice, whether they happened 
to be Catholics or Protestants. 

But beyond all, informers were held in such detestation 
that their fate excited no compassion in any breast. In bring- 
ing these wretches to condign punishment, the famous, or as 
some may deem him, the infamous Captain Dixon strenuously 
exerted himself. An informer named Thomas Murphy (a 
Catholic) had caused, by his false testimony, the transporta- 
tion of Father Dixon, a relative of the captain's. This 
wretched man was the first that felt his vengeance. On Sun- 
day, the 3rd of June, while the Catholic inhabitants were 
assisting at Mass, the captain repaired to the gaol, from which 
he led out the informer, conveyed him straightway to the bull^ 
ring, where he had him shot by three revenue officers, whom 
he compelled by threats to become his executioners. 

This was a lawless and desperate act on the part of Dixon, 
but he had been deeply injured, and his conduct, though cul- 
pable, must be admitted to be far less so than that of those 
Orange gentry who put unfortunate people, who had never 
done them any injury, to the most cruel death. Yet those who 
stigmatize this rude son Neptune as a monster, pass over 
lightly enough the diabolic atrocities perpetrated by the in- 
famous Hunter Gowan and his compeers, so great is the influ- 
ence that the accident of birth or of social positions exercises 
over some minds. 

The 14th of the same month witnessed the death of another 
individual of the same detested class. The people resolved to 



208 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

extend no mercy to such vile traitors, regarding them as ene- 
mies to humanity, whose existence was a continual danger to 
the community. At this period the frequent requisitions made 
for the different camps pressed rather heavily on the resources 
of the townspeople, but the majority of them were not unwill- 
ing to suffer some loss of property in providing for the wants 
of the brave men who perilled life and liberty for the common 
cause. To force compliance from the more selfish and grip- 
ing, the threat of burning their houses was made use of by the 
insurgents, and always with the desired effect. Things went 
off quietly in Wexford, and were it not for the occasional 
arrival of parties of the warlike peasantry, the town would 
have enjoyed the most undisturbed tranquillity, and no one 
could suppose, from the peaceful aspect it presented, that a 
fierce war was raging outside its walls. It is not, however, to 
be supposed that crimes and outrages of various kinds were 
not perpetrated during this disturbed period. 

Individuals of vile and base character are to be found in 
every class and in every country, and in times of civil com- 
motion such persons do not fail to avail themselves of the 
opportunities then presented of indulging their evil propen- 
sities. 

The existence of the cla^s referred to in Wexford was but 
too plainly shown by the numerous robberies and other out- 
rages that became frequent. The insurgent chiefs did their 
utmost to check these disgraceful proceedings, and such of 
the depredators as were caught suffered condign punishment. 
In extenuation of the offence of these marauders, it is but 
fair to say that many of them had been totally ruined by the 
forays headed by Hunter Gowan, Hawtrey White, Archibald 
Hamilton Jacob, and other magistrates of the same class. As 
the latter still pursued their course of crime and outrage, the 
popular assembly thought it necessary to issue the following 
proclamation:— 

^^Proclamation of the People of the Count'y of Wexford. 

''Whereas, it stands manifestly notorious that James 
Boyd, Hawtrey White, Hunter Gowan, and Archibald Hamil- 
ton Jacob, late magistrates of this county, have committed the 
most horrid acts of cruelty, violence, and oppression against 
our peaceable and well-disposed countrymen. Now we, the 
people, associated and united for the purpose of procuring 



The Rising op '98 209 

our just rights, and being determined to protect the persons 
and properties of all religious persuasions who have not op- 
pressed us, and are willing to join with heart and hand our 
glorious cause, as well as to show our marked disapprobation 
and horror of the crimes of the above delinquents, do call on 
our countrymen at large to use every exertion in their power 
to apprehend the bodies of the aforesaid James Boyd, Haw- 
trey White, Hunter Gowan, and Archibald Hamilton Jacob, 
and to secure and convey them to the gaol of Wexford, to be 
brought before the tribunal of the people. Done at Wexford 
this 9th day of June, 1798. 'God save the people.' " 

To illustrate the good feeling that existed among the Cath- 
olic population of Wexford and their desire to conciliate their 
Protestant fellow-townsmen, we may mention the following 
event:— The crowded state of the gaol having caused the dis- 
ease kaown as gaol fever to break out therein, the Protestants 
suggested that their own church should be used for the accom- 
modations of the sick; but to this proposal the Catholics 
firmly refused to give their assent, and eventually a sloop was 
fitted up in the harbor for the purpose. 

An incident now happily occurred to disturb for a brief 
space the calm which reigned in Wexford, and throw the 
populace into a state of violent excitement. It fell among the 
slumbering passions of the people like a lighted brand thrown 
into a powder magazine, and produced a similar explosion. 
The occasion of this popular ferment was the discovery of a 
pitch-cap in Wexford barracks, together with a commission 
for the establishment of an Orange lodge. This double dis- 
covery produced a fearful tumult. The horrid instrument of 
torture was inseparably united in the minds of the people with 
Lord Kingsborough, who was accredited with being its in- 
ventor. Breathing vengeance, a curious crowd hurried to his 
lodgings, with the ugly object that recalled so many revolting 
scenes elevated on the point of a pike, resolved to make him 
experience in his own person the torture he had designed for 
others. But Kingsborough 's aristocratic friends stepped be- 
tween him and the enraged populace. It shocked the genteely- 
constituted minds of these persons that the head which was 
destined to wear a coronet should be crowned with such an 
ungraceful head-dress as a pitch-cap. So persuasively did 
the gentlemen in question plead in favor of the prisoner, that 
the people, whose anger rarely proved unappeasable, at 



210 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

length relented in their purpose of putting him to the torture. 
They, however, insisted that he should be conveyed without 
delay to the sloop and kept prisoner there. This demand be- 
ing complied with, they dispersed. Next day Kingsborough's 
friends had the sloop condemned as unfit for the purpose to 
which it had been designed, and the prisoner was brought back 
to his former lodging. There is little doubt that Lord Kings- 
borough would have been put to death by the people could they 
have procured evidence of the cruelties he had practised else- 
where; but, luckily for him, his crimes were committed at a 
distance from Wexford, and in the absence of witnesses, the 
justice of the people refused to inflict upon him the death he 
undoubtedly deserved. 

Meantime, affairs in the county were hastening towards a 
crisis. On the 5th of June a messenger arrived in town from 
the camp at Gorey Hill, for the purpose of obtaining from the 
townspeople a supply of ammunition for their intended at- 
tack on Arklow. The latter gave, though not without great 
reluctance, one barrel out of three they had captured shortly 
before. 

Soon after this event a despatch came from Vinegar Hill, 
urgently demanding a reinforcement of men from the town, 
as an attack of the royalists was apprehended on that camp. 
In compliance with this request a force of one hundred and 
twenty gunsmen, under Captain Murphy, marched out of the 
town on the 10th of June, and arrived the same night at the 
* ' Hill, ' ' where they remained till the 20th. 

These men were distinguished for their good conduct, and 
their interposition put a stop to the executions that had been 
too frequent before their arrival; for lately the insurgents 
had adopted severe measures of retaliation, and for every 
one of their party put to death by the Orangemen, sacrificed 
one of their prisoners. It was, indeed, verging towards a war 
of extermination on both sides ; on the Orange side it had, in 
truth, been such from the very outset ; they had been but too 
faithful to their wicked oath. The rumors of excesses com- 
mitted by the partisans of the Government reached Wexford, 
and excited no slight apprehension amongst the loyalist pris- 
oners. They considered themselves in imminent danger of 
falling victims to the vengeful feeling such reports aroused 
among the people in whose power they were at present placed. 

Popular hatred still burned against Lord Kingsborough 



The Rising of '98 211 

as the representative of Orangeism (a system that in the 
minds of the people embodied everything that is hateful and 
detestable in principle and practice), and manifested itself in 
such a way as to put that young nobleman in terror of his 
life. To arrest the evil that he feared from some sudden out- 
burst of popular anger, Kingsborough wrote a letter to the 
Lord Lieutenant, in the name of his fellow-prisoners, in which 
he besought him to endeavor to procure better treatment for 
such insurgents as might be captured by the King's troops, as 
otherwise he and his fellow-captives had good reason to fear 
certain destruction. 

However, this epistle did not reach its destination, for 
Captain Dixon, aware of its being despatched, rode on before 
the bearer, Lieutenant Burke, and induced the Enniscorthy 
insurgents to seize the messenger, and intercept the letter. 
The captain put no trust in the faith of Kingsborough, and 
suspected this messenger of being the bearer of more than the 
contents of the letter, viz., important information of the plans 
of his fellow-insurgents. Were it not for the emeutes evoked 
by the captain the town would have enjoyed almost complete 
tranquillity. 

This rough sailor seems to have sworn undying enmity 
to the Orangemen, since magistrates of that faction unjustly 
(upon the evidence of a perjured informer) sentenced his rela- 
tive. Rev. Mr. Dixon, to transportation. From that time forth 
he allowed no opportunity to pass of exciting against them the 
angry feelings of his followers. 

During his brief reign as king of the mob the captain was 
wont almost daily to sally forth from the town at the head of 
an armed band, and pay domiciliary visits to the dwellings 
of the neighboring Orange gentry, with a view, as he alleged, 
of seeing that they were plotting nothing against the people 
—in fact, using against them their own tactics. In one of 
these excursions he entered the house of a certain Colonel Le 
Hunt, near the village of Castlebridge, where he alighted upon 
an object of whose use he was ignorant, or at least feigned 
to be so, and to which his excited imagination attributed a 
terrible significance. This object was nothing more or less 
than a fire-screen, bordered with orange-colored fringe, and 
painted with a grotesque representation of the heathen gods. 
The captain hastened back to town, which he entered on horse- 
back, accompanied by his wife, Madge, likewise mounted, bear- 



212 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ing aloft the yet mysterious prize, whose nature and purpose 
he began to descant upon to the mob, that, as usual, thronged 
around him. He declared that the aforesaid grotesque fig- 
ures signified nothing less than the tortures to be inflicted by 
Le Hunt and his fellow-Orangemen on the Catholics. This, 
and other appeals of the worthy captain, roused the multi- 
tude to a desire for instant vengeance on foes whose crimes 
were black enough to dispense with the addition of imaginary 
horrors. 

The populace, inflamed by Dixon's address, rushed to the 
house where the unlucky owner of the fire-screen lodged, 
seized and marched him down to jail, preparatory to holding 
a trial on him and other obnoxious persons. The tumult was, 
however, at length appeased by some gifted speaker of the 
committee, who explained to the excited crowd the harmless 
nature of the object that had aroused their anger. 

But the insurgents at Vinegar Hill were of fiercer and less 
relenting temper than those who abode in Wexford, and many 
unfortunates were there put to death as enemies to the pop- 
ular cause. Nor did their vengeance confine itself within the 
limits of their own camp ; for, on the 16th, they despatched a 
party of pikemen to the town, who, having seized upon four 
of the prisoners confined in jail, led them off with them to 
the ''Hill," where they soon after suffered death. 

Leaving the town of Wexford for a time, we now proceed 
to visit other scenes where events far more important are in 
progress. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BATTLE OF ARKLOW— DEATH OF FATHER MICHAEL MURPHY. 

The leaders of tHe insurgent army on Gorey Hill having 
decided to march forthwith to attack the royal troops, who 
had possessed themselves of Arklow, and having made every 
possible arrangement to carry their enterprise to a successful 
termination, issued orders to those who followed their stand- 
ard to be ready to set out on the expedition. At about ten 
o'clock on the 7th of June they were in readiness to march. 
Of the twenty thousand men who composed the insurgent 
force on Gorey Hill, not more than two thousand were armed 
with firearms, many of which were out of order and of little 
use, gunsmiths not being at hand to repair them. Three thou- 
sand of their number, at the utmost, had pikes ; the rest were 
forced to be content with scythes, pitchforks, and whatever 
rustic implements they could use as weapons of offence. How- 
ever, the spirit that animated these men seemed to counter- 
balance their lack of the ordinary weapons used in waging 
war. They directed their march through the village of Cool- 
greney, where they halted for a short time to take some slight 
refreshment, and, after a march of about fourteen English 
miles, arrived in front of the enemy's position, whom they 
found well entrenched in preparation to receive them. The 
insurgents perceived a number of field-officers riding in front 
of their enemy's line of battle, but a volley from their sharp- 
shooters soon compelled these gentlemen to retire behind their 
line. One of them having fallen under the fire, was carried 
off the field either killed or severely wounded. 

The insurgent artillery, under Esmond Kyan, commenced 
the battle, and by the first well-directed volley dismounted one 
of the enemy's cannon. While Kyan kept up an effective fire 
from his few pieces of artillery, one division of the insurgent 
army corps filed to the right, and commenced a vigorous at- 
tack on the Fishery, where the royal troops were in great 
force, and having to cross an open field in front of the hostile 
entrenchment, suffered considerable loss from the enemy's 
fire. Being reinforced, however, by another corps, they made 
a determined assault on the position of their foes. The main 

213 



214 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

body of the insurgents had by this time arrived, and the battle 
became general ; and after an obstinate defence, during which 
the insurgents were repeatedly charged by the regular troops 
and yeomanry, who on this occasion manifested unusual 
spirit, the latter were finally driven with great loss from their 
position. Nothing could withstand the terrible onset of the 
pikemen, who, regardless of the loss inflicted on them by their 
trained adversaries, continued the combat with the utmost 
bravery. Their chiefs proved themselves worthy to command 
such gallant men, and charged with dauntless courage at their 
head. Numbers of the insurgents fell, but the rest still pushed 
forward with dauntless determination, heroically resolved to 
conquer or perish. 

General Needham, seeing his troops beginning to quail 
before the repeated and fierce onsets of their undisciplined 
foes, deemed it prudent to retreat before the mass of the pike- 
men came to aid their comrades, whose determined onslaught 
had already made such havoc in his ranks. He feared lest 
his troops might become utterly panic-stricken and imitate 
the disgraceful flight of Walpole's, the remnants of which 
corps, cowed by their recent defeat, now began to waver. 

In vain the various corps of yeoman cavalry, who, as we 
have intimated, showed more spirit on this day than hereto- 
fore, charged furiously down upon the firm ranks of the pike- 
men. They were scattered like chaff before the wind, and 
finally retired utterly broken and discomfited. The first of the 
yeoman corps to charge the insurgent ranks was that called 
the Castletown; at their head rode Captain Thomas Knox 
Crogan, of Castletown House. This corps was also routed 
and its captain slain. Nor did the cavalry regiment of An- 
cient Britons, so infamously notorious for their cruelty, fare 
better— they also being forced to retire with severe loss. It 
was in repelling one of the cavalry charges that the insurgents 
lost one of their leaders, the Eev. Michael Murphy, who fell 
by a mortal wound in the fury of the strife. 

While the battle continued to rage with such fierceness 
between the insurgent pikemen and the cavalry of the royal- 
ists, to the increasing disadvantage of the latter, Esmond 
Kyan maintained an artillery fight with his few pieces of 
ordnance against Skerret, the colonel of the Durham Fenci- 
bles, a cautious ofl&cer, who kept his men behind their entrench- 



The Rising of '98 215 

ments, and was content to return the rather feeble fire directed 
against his position by Kyan. 

At last Kyan succeeded in driving the colonel from his 
position, and was proceeding to complete his success by a 
further effort, when, unfortunately, he was wounded severely 
by a cannon ball, which carried off a cork arm he wore, to- 
gether with a piece of the stump to which it was attached. 
This most untimely accident to poor Kyan gave his opponent 
time to choose a new and better position, and strengthen him- 
self therein. Thus Kyan lost his arm, and Skerret gained a 
reputation to which in truth he had little claim. 

The position might have been easily taken by a vigorous 
charge of pikemen, but the simple, though valiant, peasants 
had formed altogether too high an estimate of the value of 
their artillery, and many of them were satisfied to stand 
idly by, absorbed in admiration of its thundering discharges. 
This battle in which such gallantry had been displayed by 
both sides had now lasted for four hours, with great slaugh- 
ter, till, at length, the royalists began to give ground, and 
victory crowned the unparalleled bravery and determination 
of the insurgents. Their opponents gave way on all sides— 
completely beaten and borne down by the successive and re-: 
sistless onsets of the pikemen. 

It is true the Durham Fencibles still defended the second 
position, behind which they had securely ensconced them- 
selves, and in comparative security beheld their routed com- 
rades scattered far and wide over the field so long and so 
fiercely contested. 

This victory so glorious for the insurgents was, however, 
dearly bought, for many of their most valued and trusted 
chiefs and hundreds of their gallant brethren lay stretched 
on the field, dead or severely wounded. Amongst those brave 
chiefs who were slain in the conflict was, as we have already 
mentioned, the Eev. Michael Murphy— a sad loss to the in- 
surgent cause, for, in addition to the qualities that form a 
gallant chief, his priestly character made the people follow 
him with more courage into danger. 

Michael Redmond, the leader of the men of Little Lim- 
brick (a Wexford village), also received a mortal wound 
whilst leading his men into the town after driving the royal- 
ists out of the Fishery. 

Now that victory had rewarded the efforts of the insur- 



216 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

gents, and their routed enemies were in full retreat, it seems 
almost incredible that the victors should have neglected to 
secure for themselves the fruits of their dearly-bought suc- 
cess, and retire without pursuing the enemy, whom they 
might easily have made prisoners, and have obtained posses- 
sion of their arms and ammunition, of which they stood in 
such great need. Yet such was unhappily the fact. The in- 
surgent army received orders to march back to Gorey Hill, 
leaving their routed foe to pursue his flight unmolested. Had 
the English soldiers been pursued as they retreated in panic 
and disorder, their total rout would have been inevitable; 
but the occasion was lost, and with it the fruits of a victory 
that cost the lives of so many brave men. 

The insurgents on their march to Gorey carried some 
hundreds of their wounded comrades with them, leaving, un- 
fortunately, many others on the field, who were slaughtered 
without mercy by the enemy on their return. Not only did 
these wretches murder the unhappy and defenceless wounded, 
but they mangled the senseless remains of those whom death 
might have protected from all but the vengeance of fiends. 

Imagination sickens at the contemplation of the horrible 
deeds perpetrated by the Ancient Britons, who, having fear- 
fully mangled the remains of the Rev. Michael Murphy, tore 
out his heart, roasted it and ate it. 

Does history record another so fiendish deed of the sol- 
diers of any country? 

Thus ended the battle of Arklow, glorious for the bravery 
displayed therein, but unfortunate for the unaccountable 
neglect by which its fruits were lost. 

The following is the shamelessly mendacious account given 
of this action in the ''Official Bulletin," Dublin, June 10, 1798: 
"Accounts were received early this morning by Lieu- 
tenant-General Lake, from Major-General Needham at Ark- 
low, stating that the rebels had in great force attacked his 
position in Arklow at six o'clock yesterday evening. They 
advanced in an irregular manner, and extending themselves 
for the purpose of turning his left flank, his rear and right 
flanks being strongly defended by the town and barrack of 
Arklow. Upon their endeavoring to enter the lower end of 
the town, they were attacked by the Fourth Dragoon Guards, 
Fifth Dragoons, and Ancient Britons, and completely de- 
feated. All round the other points of the position they were 



The Rising of '98 217 

defeated with mucH slaughter. The loss of his Majesty *s 
troops was trifling, and their behaviour highly gallant. ' ' 

The substance of this despatch was furnished by General 
Needham to his military superior, Lake. Needham knew the 
art of forging despatches better than he did that of fighting 
insurgents ; his brother officers esteemed him little better than 
a coward, and his retreat at Arklow would have been con- 
verted into a flight but for the firmness with which Skerret 
stood his ground. 

To refute the false assertions contained in the above-given 
despatch, we need only cite the authors who have made men- 
tion of the affair in question. Sir Jonah Barrington says: — 
"The insurgents, dispirited by the fall of Father Murphy, 
advanced no further;— they began to retreat, but without pre- 
cipitation; the royal army did not think it prudent to pursue.'* 
''The rebels ceased from combat as soon as darkness came, and 
retired unpursued towards Gorey."— Eev. Mr. Gordon. ''The 
insurgents retreated when their ammunition was expended." 
Hay. 

The insurgent army, on their return from Arklow, once 
more encamped on Gorey Hill, where they remained till the 
10th, when they returned to Limbrick Hill. Meantime the 
country where the various battles we have attempted to de- 
scribe were fought, continued to be the theatre where innu- 
merable scenes of cruelty and bloodshed were exhibited. The 
yeomanry and military yet infested the country in small 
bands, taking care to avoid any place where the dreaded pike- 
men were in force, and wherever they went the shrieks of 
the tortured victims or the death-cry of some hapless wretch 
too surely announced their presence. Old men were slain, 
whose nerveless arms could not defend them, and whose white 
hairs might have moved the pity of less ruthless foes; and 
the wives, sisters, and daughters of the people far-famed for 
their purity, fell victims to the brutal lust of England's vile 
soldiery and foreign mercenaries. 

The sons, brothers, and fathers of those unhappy victims 
stood on the hill-side or slept in the rude camp under the free 
air of heaven; but the patriot's sleep was haunted by the 
woeful vision of a desolated home, and the suffering of those 
who were dear to his heart ; and can we wonder that, with a 
sense of these wrongs ever present in his mind, he swore the 
direst revenge on those who had wrought them? 



218 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Had the insurgents borne calmly such injuries and for- 
borne all retaliation, they had been more or less than human. 
They did in some instances retaliate; but we venture to af- 
firm that never did a people so foully wronged, so ruthlessly 
trampled under the iron heel of military despotism, exhibit 
so many instances of merciful forgiveness to those they knew 
to be their mortal foes. 

Owens, a Protestant minister, an Orangeman, and a magis- 
trate, had long exercised his power in a most cruel way. 
This man fell into the power of the people, and though it was 
proved that he had put many innocent men to death, his life 
was spared, and his captors decided that as he had inflicted 
the torture of the pitch-cap on so many, it was just that he 
should have an opportunity of proving it himself— to this 
punishment he was accordingly subjected. The chivalrous 
spirit of the insurgent peasantry manifested itself by giving 
women an entire inmiunity from even the slightest injury. 
As an instance of this we may relate what occurred to the 
daughters of Hunter Gowan. These young ladies, who were 
so numerous as fifteen, being encountered on the road by a 
band of armed insurgents, were stopped and questioned as to 
who they were and whither they were going. They told both, 
and were dismissed unharmed, to appreciate, if they could, the 
chivalrous generosity of the brave peasants. It is, moreover, 
admitted even by the bitterest enemies of the gallant insur- 
gents that during all the time they were masters of the coun- 
ty, no insult or injury was offered by them to any female, 
even the relatives of their most merciless foes— a fact that 
forms an admirable contrast to the brutal war waged against 
female honor by those who fought under the standards of a 
nation which boasts itself pre-eminently civilized and Chris- 
tian. 

Concerning this admirable trait in the character of the 
insurgent peasantry, as contrasted with the infamous conduct 
of the soldiery, Sir Jonah Barrington remarks:— *' It is a 
singular fact that in all the ferocity of the conflict, the storm- 
ing of towns and villages, women were uniformly respected 
by the insurgents. Though numerous ladies fell into their 
power, they never experienced any incivility or misconduct. 
But the foreign troops in our service (Hompesch's) not only 
brutally ill-treated, but occasionally shot gentlewomen. A 
very respectable married woman in Enniscorthy (Mrs. 



The Rising of '98 



219 



Stringer, the wife of an attorney) was wantonly shot at her 
window by a yeoman in cold blood. The rebels (though her 
husband was a loyalist), a short time after, took some of those 
foreign soldiers prisoners and piked them all, as they told 
them, 'just to show them how to shoot ladies.' " 

Nor were the officers, English or Irish, in the royal army 
a single pace behind those vile foreign mercenaries in the 
pursuit of such beast-like brutality. We cannot here more 
than allude to such infamy, of which abundant historical proof 
already exists. But it would scarcely be credited that so 
fearfully had the minds of the people been perverted by the 
frenzy of religious hatred, that a lady of fashion, on being 
told of the respect shown by the insurgents to the fair sex, 
merely remarked with an air of disgust, that it was owing 
to a want of gallantry in the ''croppies." 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



1 



CHAPTEE X. 

POSITION OF INSURGENTS AND ROYAIJSTS— BATTLE OF ^OOKES 

MILL. 

Early on the morning of Saturday, the 16th, news was 
brought to the insurgent camp on Limbrick Hill that Generals 
Loftus and Dundas had quitted their camps at Tullow and 
Hacketstown, and were on their march from these places with 
the intention of making a combined attack on their position. 
On the receipt of this welcome news the camp on Limbrick 
Hill was broken up, and the insurgents were once more on 
their march to meet their foes. They reached Carnew with- 
out encountering an enemy; and thence they continued their 
march to Tinahely, where their advance guard came in view 
of a like body from the hostile army, whom they put to flight, 
making many prisoners. They also captured a great num- 
ber of cattle which were in the possession of the enemy. The 
insurgents reached Mount Pleasant that night, where they 
encamped. 

At an early hour next morning the united forces of Dundas 
and Loftus came in sight of the insurgents, drawn up in 
formidable array on Mount Pleasant. The good position oc- 
cupied by the insurgents, and the appearance of military 
discipline they exhibited, considerably cooled the ardor the 
royalist officers had the day before manifested to encounter 
the ''rebels." They had openly boasted that the ''bloody 
croppy rebels" would fly on the appearance of such a formi- 
dable force as they commanded. But no sign of fear or in- 
clination to fly was shown by the fierce array of warlike 
peasants. On the other hand, these pot-valiant generals, so 
ready to put rebels to flight over their cups, now that they 
had them present, did not seem over anxious to come to close 
quarters with them. 

The English force came to a halt at a safe distance; and 
no doubt they then deemed it would be much safer to be out 
of sight altogether. The insurgents, burning to meet those 
despised foes, received with war-like ardor the command to 
advance, and charged at a quick pace down the hill in the 
direction of their enemy. 

221 



222 Ireland's Crown or Thorns and Roses 

The latter did not elioose to withstand their onset, but 
retired with great precipitation, leaving a large herd of cattle 
and a considerable quantity of provisions to be seized by their 
courageous foes. The cavalry of the royal army attempted 
to cover the rear of the retreating forces, but were unable to 
prevent the insurgents from making a number of prisoners. 
The royalist army continued to retreat before the insurgents 
till they reached a hill at a considerable distance, where they 
halted. While the main body of the royal troops was thus 
retreating from their dangerous proximity to their enemy's 
line, detached bodies from the insurgent army hung upon 
their rear, and gave occupation to the numerous corps of 
cavalry engaged in covering the retreat. Among the skir- 
mishing parties from the insurgent forces, a force of two 
hundred Arklow men, under the command of Dennis Doyle, 
made a great figure; for, in addition to their possession of 
that brave spirit which animated the entire insurgent army, 
they had, by constant training, acquired a great promptitude 
in the execution of military manoeuvres, and bore themselves 
as steadily as veteran soldiers. Night at length fell over both 
armies and put an end to the pursuit. The tumult of the fight 
was succeeded by silence, and the triumphant insurgents re- 
tired to their camp on Mount Pleasant to seek the repose 
they so much needed. During the ensuing day the insurgents 
remained on Mount Pleasant, where intelligence reached them 
of the utter failure of the insurrection in Dublin and Kildare, 
and of the supposed immediate invasion of the country by 
Bonaparte. On the same day the chiefs held a council, in 
which the next steps to be taken were discussed. It was fin- 
ally decided to endeavor to force the enemy to give battle. 
This they sought to do, as it was then known that the various 
English forces in the country were about to be concentrated 
for a combined attack on the great rendezvous and rallying 
place of the insurgents on Vinegar Hill. Accordingly, the 
insurgent army quitted their camp on Mount Pleasant, and 
took up a position on Kilcavan Hill, thus drawing near to the 
headquarters of Lieutenant-General Lake, at Gorey. But the 
English generals, with a large body of regular troops and 
yeomanry, remained stationed behind their barricades at 
Gorey, and refused to accept the challenge of the gallant band 
of Wexford and Wicklow peasants, who, seeing the evident 
reluctance of their enemy to engage them, advanced boldly 



The Rising of '98 223 

to the very walls of Gorey, where they found the King's 
troops drawn np in preparation for an attack. The few pieces 
of artillery the insurgents possessed were now brought to the 
front, and commenced to play on the enemy's lines. 

The royal artillery replied with spirit to the insurgent's 
fire, and many men fell on both sides. The pikemen, who had 
hitherto been kept in reserve, now received orders to advance. 
This command they obeyed with their usual alacrity, and 
pushed rapidly forward to encounter the redcoats. The latter 
retreated slowly before the impetuous advance of the insur- 
gents, who continued to pursue them till night put an end to 
the conflict. This engagement took place between the ad- 
vance guards of both armies; for the main body of the in- 
surgents yet remained on the hill, while that of the royalists 
kept behind their entrenchments at Gorey. While a part of 
the insurgent army was thus engaged, their comrades on the 
hill were busily discussing the contents of despatches which 
in the interim had arrived from the general-in-chief, which 
were to this effect -.—that being unable to maintain his position 
before Ross, he was forced to fall back with his division to 
cover Wexford, and that he considered it expedient that the 
forces now on Kilcavan Hill should forthwith set out for Vine- 
gar Hill, in order to act in concert with his army. The wisdom 
of the proposed step being discussed among the chiefs, it was 
decided by the majority to abandon their present position, on 
the very evening that had witnessed the glorious success of 
a portion of their army in combat with a far more numerous 
force of the King's troops. That night the insurgents set out 
for Vinegar Hill, halting to repose at Ferns, well-night ex- 
hausted from excessive fatigue and want of food. On the 
next morning they resumed their march, proceeding slowly, 
in order to give time to some who had gone in quest of food 
to rejoin their corps. Great was the rejoicing in the English 
camp at Gorey when it was known that their dreaded foe had 
quitted their encampment and were retreating toward Vine- 
gar Hill. Soon those English troops, whose cautious generals 
had hitherto kept them cooped behind intrenchments, which 
they had hardly hoped would protect them, issued from their 
shelter and forthwith commenced a vigorous pursuit. It- 
would be vain to attempt a description of the enormities per- 
petrated by those worse than savage troops as they hung on 
the rear of the weary pikemen. Suffice it to say that in their 



"224 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

progress tlirougli the country everything of value they could 
lay hands on they plundered, every woman that fell into their 
hands they brutally violated, and every man they put to death. 
The insurgents, meantime, continued their retreat in good 
order, a rear-guard keeping the enemy at a distance. Their 
movements were, however, considerably impeded by the vast 
multitude of helpless women and children, who, flying in 
terror before the advance of the royal army, sought protec- 
tion of their armed countrymen. Weary and exhausted, 
the latter at length arrived at the foot of Vinegar Hill just 
at nightfall, and encamped around it. A hundred fires, light- 
ing up the dark night, made visible the great numbers that 
had sought protection in the vicinity of the army of the people. 

The division of the insurgents under the command of 
Father Philip Roche was now encamped on Lacken Hill, an 
eminence situated between Ross and Enniscorthy, with the 
intention of making another attack on the former town. But 
to carry this intention into effect, the insurgents were sadly 
in need of arms and ammunition. 

To obtain a supply of these they resolved to attack Borris 
House, the residence of Mr. Kavangh, which was known to 
contain a large quantity of the material of war. In this attack 
they failed, as they did in most others in which they had to 
fight enemaes sheltered behind stone walls. The house in ques- 
tion was so strongly built that the fire of the howitzer the in- 
surgents brought with them had no effect on its walls. This 
fortress-like mansion was defended by a party of the Donegal 
Militia. The attacking party carried on the assault with 
great determination till evening, when they desisted from it 
on perceiving the approach of « 'harles Asgil, at the head of 
an overpowering force. The baffled insurgents then returned 
to their encampment at Lacken Hill. There, on the morning 
of the 19th, one of the chiefs descried, by the aid of a glass, a 
considerable force of horse, foot and artillery marching 
towards them. When their general, the Rev. Philip Roche, 
was apprised of this, he gave orders to the small force under 
his command (then diminished to some four hundred men) to 
prepare for battle. 

This command was, however, prevented from being carried 
into effect by Colonel T. Clooney, who considered it would be 
decidedly rash to hazard a battle with such inferior force as 
the insurgents possessed. ** Acting on this opinion, he desired 



The Rising of '98 225 

the men to draw up two deep on the hill-side, fronting their 
enemy, and, at the same time, placing their hats at the end of 
their pikes, to raise them above their heads, so as to deceive 
the enemy, by making their small force seem more numerous 
than in reality it was." They were, at the same moment, to 
raise a shout as if about to charge the advancing enemy. These 
orders were obeyed, and the stratagem succeeded. The ad- 
vancing royalists halted, seemed to be thrown into confusion, 
extending their line, as if to prevent themselves from being 
outflanked by the insurgents, whom they supposed about to 
attack them in great force. While this confusion prevailed 
amongst the King's troops, the insurgents made a hasty re- 
treat in the direction of Wexford, and, before the enemy were 
in readiness to pursue them, were at a safe distance. 

Mr. Clooney admits that the number of the royal troops did 
not exceed that of the insurgents, but considered that as the 
latter had but a few rounds of ammunition for their muskets, 
and no cannon, an engagement could only end in defeat. He 
affirms that Father Roche, on being told of the enemy's ap- 
proach, immediately issued orders for battle, without even 
inquiring what force he had to encounter. 

At a late hour that night the insurgents arrived at the en- 
campment on the Three Rocks, considerably augmented in 
numbers on the way thither. They heard on their arrival that 
Sir John Moore, at the head of a large force, was encamped 
at Longraig, a village midway between Ross and Wexford. 
In consequence of this intelligence, a council of war was held to 
deliberate concerning the steps to be taken. Some officers sug- 
gested a night attack, but this was opposed by the majority, 
and it was finally resolved to set out at an early hour on the fol- 
lowing morning. According, at daybreak next morning, the 
insurgents, being reinforced by a body of gunsmen, who had 
been summoned by express during the night from Vinegar 
Hi]i. set out to give battle to fifteen hundred chosen troops 
under the command of one of the bravest and most skillful 
generals in the English service. When the insurgents ar- 
rived at Goff 's Bridge, within sight of the enemy, they halted, 
and the gunsmen, who had been mingling with pikemen during 
their hurried march, were now arrayed into a separate body- 
forming a line four deep, and amounting to about six hundred 
and fifty men. At this critical juncture, when the insurgents 
were about to engage their enemy, the chief, who has been al- 



226 Ireland's Crqwn op Thorns and Roses 

ready mentioned as having betrayed the cause at Eoss, left 
the field at the head of his detachment, under pretence of 
taking up a position as would enable him to cut oif the enemy's 
retreat in case of their being defeated. While Colonel Clooney 
was engaged in remonstrating with this recreant, General 
Eoche, with his usual promptitude, issued orders to his men 
to advance towards the enemy, who were drawn up in a line 
of battle at Fooke's Mill. 

During the battle which ensued the pikemen were forced 
to remain inactive, the nature of the ground chosen by the 
English generals rendering their advance impossible, and 
consequently the combat had to be maintained by the gunsmen. 
The latter continued to pour their fire upon the English line 
till their ammunition was exhausted ; then perceiving two cav- 
alry regiments, under Lord Dalhousie, approaching to rein- 
force the enemy, the insurgent general unwillingly ordered a 
retreat. 

No attempt was made to molest the insurgents, who retired 
from the contest slowly and in good order, bringing with 
them five out of the six small pieces of cannon they had con- 
veyed with them. There is little doubt that the failure of the 
insurgents ' ammunition saved the English force from destruc- 
tion, as in case of a retreat, they would have been charged by 
the resistless pikemen. The great loss, amounting to about 
five hundred men in killed and wounded on the side of the 
English, sufficiently accounts for the unmolested retreat of 
their enemy. In this action the loss of the insurgents did not 
amount to half that sustained by the royalists. The main 
body of the insurgents encamped on the Three Eocks, while 
a party belonging to the town took up their quarters there 
for the night. 








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CHAPTEE XI. 

ALARM OF THE EISTGLISH GOVERKMENT — FAMOUS BATTLE OF VINE- 
GAR HILL. 

The English government, to render effectual whose vile 
design upon the legislative independence of Ireland the people 
had been goaded into this insurrection, now beginning to fear 
lest the continued and stubborn resistance of the Wexfordmen 
might arouse the rest of the country from their unaccountable 
apathy, resolved to crush the rebellion at once by pouring 
into the country such a force as would render resistance im- 
possible. It seemed, in truth, from the vastness of England's 
military preparation, as if she were waging war against the 
united forces of some powerful and rival nation, not merely 
against the half-armed peasantry of but one, and that not 
the largest, of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. 

''When we consider," says Mr. Teeling, ''the number of 
troops engaged, the rank and distinction of the commanders, 
and the immense preparations for reducing a single county, 
we may form some idea of the importance that Government 
attached to the Wexford campaign. After so many severe 
conflicts between the British and the united troops, it was 
now evident that Wexford could only be reduced by an over- 
whelming force ; and we find with others the following Brit- 
ish officers employed in this service: Lieutenants-General 
Lake and Dundas, Majors-General Needham, Duff, Hunter, 
Loftus, Eustace, Johnson, Gascoyne, and Brigadiers-General 
Moore, Grose, etc. The opposition which this force encount- 
ered was evident x)roof that the Government had not over- 
rated the courage of the foe. ' ' 

From all quarters regiments were on the march to take 
part in a combined attack on the insurgent encampment. 

In obedience to orders from the commander-in-chief. Gen- 
eral Lake, the following generals put the troops under their 
command in motion, and hastened to occupy the positions 
assigned to them : General Dundas marched from Baltinglas 
to Hacketstown, there to form a junction with Major-General 
Loftus, who was to proceed thither from Tallow; both gen- 
erals were then to advance with their combined forces to at- 

227 



228 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

tack the insurgents posted on Mount Pleasant. By orders 
from the general-in-cliief they halted at Hackettstown to await 
the signal for attack. While the above-mentioned command- 
ers halted at Hacketstown, Major-General Needham moved, 
on the 19th of June, from Arklow to Gorey, and on the ensu- 
ing day encamped on Oulart Hill. On the 19th, Major General 
Johnson and General Eustace, having driven the insurgents 
from Lacken Hill, proceeded to Bloomfield, where they en- 
camped on the evening of the 20th. On the same evening 
Brigadier-General Moore took up position at Fooke's Mill, 
and Major-General Sir James Duff had marched from New- 
townbarry, and joined General Loftus at Scarawalsh. 

It would be utterly impossible to describe the devastation 
caused by these various divisions of the English army as they 
marched to take up their different positions. Corps of auxil- 
iary yeomen followed each of these divisions to render the 
ruin of the country more complete. On the 20th all the above- 
named generals had arrived at their appointed stations, where 
they remained to await further orders from Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral Lake, who, with General Dundas, was posted at Sols- 
borough. To aid the concentration of troops on land several 
men-of-war appeared off the coast, while gunboats blocked up 
the entrance of Wexford Harbor. As these troops, strong 
in number and discipline, and amply provided with every 
munition of war, pursued their way of blood and fire through 
the devastated country, the unfortunate inhabitants, old men, 
women, and children, who had hitherto sought an anxious and 
trembling refuge amidst their native fields, now driven even 
from this shelter, were forced to seek protection at the en- 
campments where the national flag still waved in defiance to 
the foe. Many of these helpless and terrified fugitives directed 
their steps to the town of Wexford, of which their countrymen 
still held possession. Among the English generals at the time 
in Wexford, one alone is recorded to have shown that gra- 
cious quality of mercy, without which the soldier becomes a 
mere mercenary butcher ; he endeavored to put a stop to the 
executions and half hangings, and the various tortures that 
had caused such unparalleled misery in Wexford. 

The deep slumbers of the brave men who lay around Vine- 
gar Hill were early broken by the random shots that announced 
the approach of the royal army. 

The men who were aroused by such a stern call from their 



The Rising of '98 229 

much-needed rest and reminded of tHe perilous struggle be- 
fore them, had proved themselves in many a hard fought com- 
bat the bravest of the brave, and now, in the crisis of their 
career there was no sign of dismay among them. They an- 
swered promptly to the call of their leaders, and each man 
betook himself without delay to the place assigned for the 
assemblage of the particular corps to which he belonged. The 
cheerful and inspiring summons of the drum and fife was, in 
the insurgent army, supplied by the human voice, and on hear- 
ing the name of his native parish shouted aloud, the rustic sol- 
died quickly proceeded to poin his comrades. The armies about 
to engage were nearly equal in numbers, but here all parity 
ceases. Twenty thousand brave peasants shouldered pike or 
musket around Vinegar Hill, while as many trained English 
soldiery were drawn up in a circle that nearly enclosed their 
line, prepared to give them battle. 

Twenty thousand English troops, led by six chosen gen- 
erals, and practiced in every military manoeuvre, furnished 
with the great arm of war, a formidable artillery, and aided 
by many corps of yeoman cavalry, might promise themselves 
an easy victory over enemies so unskillfully led and so poorly 
armed as the insurgents. Moreover, the royal troops were 
fresh from the repose of the camp, and vigorous as men 
should be who never suffered from the-want of fitting food 
or drink. 

At early dawn the English troops began to approach the 
insurgent position, and gradually to form a kind of circle 
around their foes encamped on the hill and its immediate 
vicinity. This circle was not, however, complete, for on the 
Wexford side of the hill it was open, and General Needham, 
whose division, it was afterwards affirmed, should have occu- 
pied the vacant space, was stationed in the rear to cover a 
possible retreat, for former defeats had made this at least 
possible to General-in-Chief Lake. The rattle of musketry 
that had roused the slumbering peasants to resume their arms 
became more frequent as the morning advanced, and soon the 
cannon was heard thundering from the various advancing 
bodies of the British army. When the powerful English artil- 
lery came within range its concentrated fire was directed 
against the summit of the hill, whereon the greater part of 
the insurgent force was massed, amongst whom it did consid- 
erable execution. To this destructive fire from so many large 



230 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

pieces of artillery the few small guns, but two, in the posses- 
sion of the insurgents made a feeble response of defiance, but 
lacked the skill of Esmond Kyan to direct its fire, which soon 
ceased altogether on the ammunition becoming exhausted. 

''Even on Vinegar Hill," remarks Mr. Hay, ''there were 
but two charges for cannon— one of which was fired against 
the army approaching from Solsborough, and the other a dis- 
mounted cannon posted at the Duffery Gate at Enniscorthy. ' ' 

The aiamunition for the smaller arms soon after failed, 
and the pike was now the only hope. All this while the insur- 
gents had sustained a murderous fire from the English rifle- 
men, who, finding a convenient shelter behind the various 
hedges and ditches in the vicinity of the hill, poured thence a 
terrible fire on their exposed enemies. Though their ammuni- 
tion was all expended, the brave insurgents still continued the 
fight, and endeavored to drive their foes from behind their 
natural entrenchments. It was a fearful sight to behold 
the gallant pikemen charging up to the very mouths of the 
cannon with a desperate bravery that has never been sur- 
passed, while their ranks were being terribly thinned by suc- 
cessive discharges of every species of deadly firearm. Con- 
cerning the position occupied, and the bravery displayed by 
the insurgents during this action, Sir Jonah Barrington makes 
the following observations : 

"The peasantry had dug a slight ditch around the extent 
of the base of Vinegar Hill; they had a very few pieces of 
small, half-disabled cannon, some swivels, and not above two 
thousand firearms of all descriptions. But their situation 
was desperate, and General Lake considered that two thou- 
sand firearms in the hands of infuriated and courageous men, 
supported by a multitude of pikemen, might be equal to ten 
times the number under other circumstances. 

"A great many women mingled with their relatives, and 
fought with fury ; several were found dead amongst the men, 
who had fallen in crowds by the bursting of shells. . . . 
It was astonishing with what fortitude the peasantry, uncov- 
ered, stood the tremendous fire upon the four sides of their 
position; a stream of shells and grape was poured on the 
multitude; the leader encouraged them by exhortations, the 
women, by their cries, and every shell that broke amongst 
the crowd was followed by shouts of defiance. General Lake 's 
horse was shot, many officers wounded, some killed, and a few 



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The Rising of '98 231 

gentlemen became visible during the beat of the battle. The 
troops advanced gradually but steadily up the hill ; the peas- 
antry kept up their fire, and maintained their ground; their 
cannon were nearly useless, their powder deficient, but they 
died fighting at their post." 

It was a slaughter, not a fight, for to the ceaseless bea't- 
ing of the iron storm the hapless insurgents could not reply 
with even one defiant shot. While the body of insurgents on 
the hill carried on the contest with such heroic perseverance 
against such fearful odds, the division that obeyed the joint 
command of Mr. Barker and Father Kearns had likewise been 
hotly engaged with the enemy. Their position was at some 
distance beyond the Duffery Gate, and this they had suc- 
cessfully defended against the English, under General John- 
son, on the preceding day. The attack on this position was 
renewed in the morning and continued till the retreat of their 
comrades from Vinegar Hill. Barker, whose experience in 
the French service we have already mentioned, showed in this 
action that he had profited by his past lessons in military art. 
He first posted a body of reserve on the bridge, where he also 
placed the only cannon he possessed, which was of small size, 
and mounted on a car. 

He then formed the main body of his brave pikemen, sta- 
tioning the gunsmen on either flank. Having made this dis- 
position of his force, he charged desperately down on the 
enemy's line, and continued to hold them in check until they 
were too strongly reinforced, when he retreated to the bridge, 
which he held with dauntless determination, till the loss of his 
arm compelled him to quit the field. Father Kearns took his 
place, but was soon after severely wounded and carried from 
the fight. 

Another priest named Clinch was slain in this action. He 
was engaged in an encounter with Lord Roden, whom he had 
wounded, when a trooper, coming up to the assistance of his 
ofiicer, shot down his opponent. 

This unequal struggle, which the insurgents maintained 
during so many hours against such terrible odds at length 
came to an end. Orders were issued by the insurgent leaders 
for a retreat in the direction of Wexford ; the road to which 
town, as we have seen, was left open to them by the cautious 
policy of the English generals, who feared to drive their stub- 
born foes to desperation. The barbarous cruelties perpetrated 



232 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

by the command of General Lake sufficiently evinced that pru- 
dence, and not mercy or any nobler motive, prompted him thus 
to leave retreat open to his hard-fighting foes. To the eternal 
disgrace of the army to which such a miscreant belonged, he 
caused the hospital that sheltered the sick and wounded to 
the insurgent army to be set on fire, and, horrible to relate, 
all the unfortunate inmates were burned to death in the flames 
that consumed the building. Moreover, he issued orders that 
all the wounded on the field of battle, as well as those dis- 
covered in the houses, would be put to immediate death. In- 
delibly branded is the nation whose flag is upheld by such 
merciless butchers as this disgrace to the noble profession of 
a soldier! 

Barker, the wounded leader, was saved from the fate of 
the others in the same case, through the interference of some 
staff-officers who quartered themselves at his house; how- 
ever, he was arrested by order of the general-in-chief, and 
conveyed to Wexford jail, there to wait his trial. He was 
soon after released from prison on account of ill health, at 
the intercession of his brother, and pending his trial managed 
to escape to France. The insurgent army, thus forced to re- 
treat, were enabled to continue their march towards Wexford 
almost unmolested. The cavalry, as usual, being upon their 
rear, occasionally showed an inclination to assail their re- 
treating enemy, but the rear-guard kept them in effectual 
check. But it fared far otherwise with the defenceless multi- 
tude, who had gathered round the insurgent camp on the fatal 
hill. To these no mercy was shown; they were inhumanly 
butchered by the pursuing yeomanry. These wretches dis- 
played on this occasion, their usual thirst for blood, and their 
swords, so seldom reddened in fight, were now deeply dyed in 
the blood of unarmed fugitives. The number slain in battle 
on that day was small in comparison with the multitude of 
unarmed who fell by the swords of the victors. 

With respect to the number who were slain on the insur- 
gent side during the battle, Sir Jonah Barrington says : * ' Cav- 
alry and mortars were brought to force their line, and even 
against such an attack they made a long and desperate re- 
sistAnce, and retreated from that large and disciplined army 
with very little comparative loss." Surely, such a retreat 
w«i) more glorious than many a victory. 

IVTien the insurgents arrived at Wexford they found it 



The Rising of '98 



233 



already occupied by the division of their army which had 
retreated from Eoss; and thus, after three weeks of almost 
incessant fighting, wherein thousands of brave men had fallen, 
the remnants of both divisions again met, less sanguine, in- 
deed, than when first they Darted, but still not hopeless for 
the future. 

The insurgents were greatly aided in their retreat by a 
large force under General Edward Roche, who arrived too late 
to join in the combat at the hill, but in time to render his de- 
feated comrades this important service. It was his force that 
covered the retreat. While the battle was yet raging at Vine- 
gar Hill, the reports of the distant artillery were borne omin- 
ously to the ears of the inhabitants of the town of Wexford. 
At length they ceased, and soon after the news was brought 
that the royal forces had won the day, and were already on 
their march towards the town. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER XII. 

BUMOES OF FRENCH INVASION— GEE AT EXCITEMENT IN WEXFORD— 
EXECUTION OF PEISONEES ON THE BEIDGE. 

The rumors now rife of a French invasion increased the 
anxiety of the British Government in no small degree, for 
conld the Wexford men prolong the contest till the arrival of a 
Gallic force to their aid, the result of their combined efforts 
might prove fatal to British dominion in Ireland. 

To quell the insurrection before the arrival of such formi- 
dable auxiliaries was now the object towards the accomplish- 
ment of which all the vast resources of England were em- 
ployed. Regiment after regiment came pouring into Wexford 
till the insurgents found themselves confronted with an over- 
whelming power. 

It is computed that previous to the action at Vinegar Hill 
there was a force of fully 90,000 men collected in the county 
of Wexford, so that there were at the least three soldiers to 
every insurgent. These were fearful odds against the pa- 
triots, who, though entertaining but small hopes of ultimate 
success, determined, nevertheless, to maintain the struggle 
to the last extremity. Around Vinegar Hill they decided to 
assemble their dispersed forces, and accordingly from that 
post messengers were despatched in all directions to summon 
thither the insurgents who were still in arms. In this emer- 
gency the dismayed and perplexed inhabitants of Wexford as- 
sembled together to consult concerning what measures they 
should adopt, but while they were yet engaged in delibera- 
tion, an imperious summons arrived from Vinegar Hill, com- 
manding all the fighting men to be there at daybreak. Many 
of the townsmen set off that evening to join the chief rendez- 
vous, while, to appease the insurgents in their vicinity, a 
party of sailers employed themselves in conveying to the 
Three Rocks the six small cannon taken from the Guinea cut- 
ter. On the evening of the 19th a band of Wexford gunsmen 
returned to town from Vinegar Hill with imperative orders 
to bring out reinforcements to that camp. At daybreak on the 
ensuing day the drums beat, and all the armed inhabitants 
marched out, leaving none behind save those who formed the 
guard. 

235 . 



236 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

On the night preceding the departure of these men a 
band of seventy pikemen from the northern parts of the 
county had arrived in town, and were lodged in the barracks 
by Captain Dixon. Mr. Hay, who seemed the good angel of 
the Orangemen— while the captain might be termed their evil 
genius— suspected that the latter entertained sinister designs 
with regard to his proteges, resolved, if possible, to thwart 
him in their accomplishment. 

With seventy pikemen at his back Daxon might act the 
dictator in the town, and sacrifice those he deemed the enemies 
of his county. To prevent him from putting into execution 
such a sanguinary scheme, Mr. Hay mounted his horse, and 
rode off on the spur to the camp at the Three Eocks, to repre- 
sent the matter to the chiefs of the insurgent army. 

He succeeded, though not without great difficulty, in obtain- 
ing the aid he sought, in the shape of a party of 120 of his 
fellow-townsmen, who had a few days before joined the camp. 
However, four days elapsed before Mr. Hay could gain what 
he sought, and on his return found, to his dismay, the town 
thronged with armed insurgents. 

This force had been collected in the country and brought 
in by General Edward Roche, preparatory to their proceed- 
ing to reinforce the camp at Vinegar Hill. 

On the morning of the 20th, when General Eoche desired 
to lead his body to the Hill, he found, to his great mortifica- 
tion, that they were unwilling to accompany him thither. 
They were led to adopt this course by the advice of Captain 
Dixon, who, having first aroused the spirit of vengeance in 
their breasts by a recital of their wrongs, represented to them 
that a fortunate chance being placed in their power, the chief 
inflictors of these evils, it would be folly to permit them to 
escape unpunished. Dixon urged this point with such artful 
eloquence that they determined to aid hiiu in the execution of 
the sanguinary scheme he had long meditated. Mr. Hay thus 
describes the excitement of the multiude: ''When the peo- 
ple were assembled, and when General Eoche thought to lead 
them to an Enniscorthy, they peremptorily refused to pro- 
ceed, representing Wexford, from the suggestions of Cap- 
tain Dixon, as more vunerable; wherefore, the General him- 
self thought it more advisable to continue with this body of 
the people, now consisting chiefly of fugitives from the north- 
ern parts of the county. 



The Rising of '98 237 

''These were continually relating their misfortunes, the 
cruelties they suffered and the hardships they endured, to 
those with whom they took refuge ; which roused and irritated 
the populace to such a pitch of fury as admits not of a de- 
scription and of which none but an eye-witness can have an 
adequate idea. 

"All entreaties and remonstrances to soothe or calm the 
exasperated multitude were in vain. However, continuing still 
on horseback, I endeavored to address, explain, excuse and 
expostulate, and in the course of these attempts many pikes 
were raised against me, and several guns and pistols cocked 
and pointed at me and vengeance vowed against me as an 
Orangeman; that I had never attended their camps or I 
would be a judge of their miseries by a view of general deso- 
lation. One man would roar out that I had not been flogged 
as he had been; another pathetically related that his house 
had been burned ; and that he had been driven to beggary with 
his whole family, and that he would have the death of the 
person that injured him; a third lamented the death of his 
father; another that of a brother; others of their children; 
and the appeal was made to me to decide on all their various 
sufferings and misfortunes, while they perseveringly declared 
they only wanted to be avenged of those who had actually 
done them wrong, and I was asked, if similarly circumstanced, 
would I not take revenge for such injuries as theirs." 

Mr. Hay then implored them to grant the Orangemen at 
least a trial, but was answered by the universal cry, ''What 
trial did we or our friends and relations obtain when some 
were hanged or shot and others whipped or otherwise tor- 
tured, our houses and property burned and destroyed and our- 
selves hunted like mad dogs?" 

At length the people yielded to the entreaties of Mr. Hay 
and others and consented to grant the prisoners a trial. A 
tribunal of seven men was constituted to determine their 
sentence. Of this number four proved favorable to mercy 
and could not be brought to alter their decision by the argu- 
ments or threats of Captain Dixon. The latter in despair of 
gaining their acquiescence, was on the point of yielding when 
aid came to him from an unexpected quarter. 

Two Orangemen named Jackson and O'Connor came for- 
ward and proffered their testimony as informers against the 
prisoners. 



238 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Dixon was now triumpliant. The news of an event which 
favored their views was soon spread abroad among the angry 
multitude, and a demand was heard for the instant execution 
of such as should be found guilty on the strength of the lately- 
found testimony. 

Mr. Hay and his fellow-intercessors retired from the scene, 
and the bloody tragedy began. The first who suffered was a 
man named Matthewson, who was shot outside the prison 
door. A batch of eighteen unfortunates was then conducted 
to the bridge at the request of Dixon, he himself flanked on 
either side by an informer, heading the horrid procession. 
The manner of their trial was as follows: Placed on their 
knees on the bridge, they were confronted with the two in- 
formers, who gave their evidence against them ; if the alleged 
crime was considered deserving of death, before the sentence 
was pronounced by Dixon, it was asked of the people who 
thronged around did they know of any good action that might 
be thought sufficient to counterbalance their crimes and entitle 
them to mercy. 

Several of the prisoners found an intercessor among the 
spectators, and were thus snatched from death. But in case 
no such intercessor came forward, the death-signal was given 
by the judge, and the condemned was instantly piked. 

The bodies were then thrown over the railing of the bridge 
into the river, nothing being taken off the person, for the 
object of the insurgents was vengeance, not robbery. This 
terrible tragedy went on for some time uninterrupted, till a 
Mr. Kellet, on being brought before the summary tribunal, 
bethought him in his extremity of summoning to his aid the 
parish priest of the town, Eev. Father Currin. This was the 
first intimation the reverend gentleman had of what was go- 
ing on. He came running to the bridge in time to interpose 
between the person who had summoned him and a bloody 
death. The pikes of the executioners were uplifted to be 
again reddened with the blood of another victim, when the 
minister of peace came upon the scene, where angry and re- 
vengeful passions had full sway, and Christian men had for- 
gotten, in the remembrance of their dreadful wrongs, the 
most sublime of the Redeemer's precepts— forgiveness of in- 
juries. The good priest threw himself upon his knees beside 
the intended victim, and implored the people who stood around 
to join in prayer. Many of them yielded to this entreaty, and 



The Rising of '98 239 

knelt down. Then in solemn and fervent tones he prayed 
the Almighty Judge to show hereafter the same mercy to the 
people as they would show to the prisoners. This produced 
a deep impression on many of them. Mr. Kellet's life was 
spared, but the trials were resumed, and others whose guilt 
was more evident were put to death. A new intercessor soon 
after appeared. This was Mr. Esmond Kyan, who, though 
suffering from a severe wound received at the battle of New 
Ross, had risen from his sick bed, and caused himself to be 
borne on a litter to the spot. He added his entreaties to those 
of Father Currin, and at length the slaughter ceased. In all 
thirty-six persons fell victims to popular vengeance. Refer- 
ring to the humane exertions of Father Currin and Mr. Kyan 
on this occasion, a Protestant gentleman afterwards re- 
marked: *'I have heard of hundreds of Catholics who risked 
their lives to save those of Protestants, but not of one Prot- 
estant who encountered any danger to save the lives of Catho- 
lics. '» 

On the save evening, about eight o'clock. General Roche 
marched off with his men towards Vinegar Hill, but too late 
to form a junction with the insurgents assembled there, for 
the hill was already surrounded by the English troops. On 
the 21st the engagement at Vinegar Hill took place, and the 
thunder of the English artillery was distinctly heard in Wex- 
ford, warning the inhabitants to provide for their safety, 
for little hope was entertained by them that the scale of vic- 
tory would incline in favor of the insurgents. At an early 
hour on the same day Lord Kingsborough sent for Mr. Hay 
to concert measures for the safety of the town. 

The drums were beaten to assemble the inhabitants. They 
met at the house of Captain Keough, and there decided to 
send a deputation to each of the three royal generals, who, 
with their divisions, were now approaching Wexford. 

One of these had arrived at Oulart, another was posted at 
Enniscorthy, while a third had arrived at the Three Rocks. 
It was also decided at the meeting in question to appoint Lord 
Kingsborough military governor of the town, and to reinstate 
Dr. Jacob as mayor. Lord Kingsborough having received the 
sword which Captain Keough reluctantly resigned, proceeded 
to write off despatches to the different British commanders. 
These despatches ran as follows : 

**That the town of Wexford had surrendered to him, and 



240 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

in consequence of the behavior of those in the town during 
the rebellion, they should all be protected in person and prop- 
erty, murderers excepted, and those who instigated others to 
commit murder; hoping that these terms might be ratified, 
as he had pledged his honor in the most solemn manner to 
have these terms fulfilled on the town being surrendered to 
him, the Wexford men not being concerned in the massacre, 
which was perpetrated by country people in their absence." 

With the foregoing document another was forwarded from 
the people of Wexford. It was as follows : 

''That Captain McManus shall proceed from Wexford 
towards Oulart, accompanied by Mr. Edward Hay, appointed 
by the inhabitants of all religious persuasions, to inform the 
ofiicer commanding the king's troops that they are ready to 
deliver up the town of Wexford without opposition, to lay down 
their arms, and to return to their allegiance, provided that 
their persons and properties are guaranteed by the command- 
ing officer; and that they will use every influence in their 
power to induce the people of the country at large to return 
to their allegiance; and these terms it is hoped Captain Mc- 
Manus will be able to procure. 

** Signed by order of the inhabitants of Wexford. 

''Matthew Keough. 

''Wexford, June 21, 1798." 

Captain Dixon and his friends were strongly opposed to 
the capitulation, but their opposition was overruled by the 
majority of the townspeople. 

Mr. Hay and Captain McManus, who bore the despatch 
sent to Lieutenant-General Lake, were well received by that 
commander, who, however, declared that he did not consider 
himself bound by any promises made by Lord Kingsborough. 
He sent Mr. Hay back to the town with his answer to their 
request. This reply was couched in the following severe 
terms : 

"Lieutenant-General Lake cannot attend to any terms by 
rebels in arms against their sovereign. While they continue 
so he must use the force entrusted to him with the utmost 
energy for their destruction. To the deluded multitude he 
promises pardon on their delivering into his hands their lead- 
ers, surrendering their arms, and returning with sincerity to 
their allegiance. Signed, G. Lake, 

' ' Enniscorthy, June 22, 1798. ' ' 



The Rising of '98 241 

Meantime the insurgents who had been defeated at Ennis- 
corthy took their route along the eastern bank of the Slaney, 
crossing the bridge at Ferry-Carrig, and halting near the 
Three Eocks. The majority of them were unwilling that the 
town should be surrendered without having first obtained the 
same terms for themselves as had been conceded to the towns- 
people. 

To obtain such terms they despatched three of their offi- 
cers to bring Lord Kingsborough to their camp with the pur- 
pose of detaining him there as a hostage till what they re- 
quired was granted, and it was not till the latter had made the 
most solemn promises of the terms in question being conceded 
that the insurgent officers quitted the town and returned to 
their camp. The solemn promises made by Lord Kingsbor- 
ough induced many of the insurgent chiefs to remain in Wex- 
ford— an ill-judged step, as the sequel proved. To prevent 
the capitulation being affected, and ' to put an end to 
all negotiations, a man of Dixon's party, named Timo- 
thy Whelan, shot Ensign Harman while on his way with a 
despatch to General Moore. The same person also attempted 
to shoot Lord Kingsborough, but his pistol missed fire, and 
Kingsborough had the good fortune to escape on this occa- 
sion from the fury of an individual, as he had on the former 
the vengeance of an angry multitude. Dreading the well-known 
severity of General Lake, the inhabitants of Wexford, while 
he was yet on his way thither, surrendered the town to Gen- 
eral Moore. It was fortunate they did so, for the latter, like 
most really brave men, was of a merciful disposition, and 
averse to shedding blood save in the field of battle. The gal- 
lant and humane officer in question proved himself at this 
juncture not undeserving of his high reputation. 

He issued orders that none of the inhabitants should be 
put to death or in any way injured; and fearing lest his 
troops, in the excitement of their triumphant entry, might pro- 
ceed to sack the town, which they had threatened to do, he 
detained them on Windmill-Hill till their fury had abated. 
But he could not restrain the treacherous and sanguinary 
yeomen, parties of whom stole into the town, and proceeding 
to the hospital, wherein lay one hundred and sixty wounded 
insurgents, set it on fire, the unfortunate and helpless inmates 
perishing in the flames. 

On the 22nd General Lake marched out from Enniscorthy 



242 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



for Wexford, but, on arriving near the town, had the mortifi- 
cation of finding that it had been already surrendered to Gen- 
eral Moore. 

Lake was a second Cromwell in his relentless cruelty 
towards the vanquished, but without a spark of the military 
genius which crowned that renowned regicide with unfading 
though blood-dyed laurels. 




Sculpture on Window: Cathedral Church, Glendalough ; Beranger, 1779. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE BETREAT FROM VINEGAR HILL— FATHER ROCHE GOES ON A 
FATAL MISSION — THE BRUTAL HESSIANS. 

We have hitherto seen the insurgents victorious in almost 
every encounter, but we must now follow them in their more 
unpropitious fortunes, and behold how these brave men strug- 
gled, amidst ever accumulating difficulties, to prolong the 
unequal contest. While negotiations were being still carried 
on between the people of Wexford town and the English com- 
manders, the insurgent forces, greatly lessened in numbers, 
marched out in two divisions, taking different routes. The 
Three Rocks were once more the scene of the insurgent en- 
campment. On these heights were assembled some two thou- 
sand men, under the command of Father John Murphy, who 
still, with dauntless courage, upheld the flag he had first un- 
furled in the name of his oppressed country. 

Thus while the timid sued for terms, and even brave men 
deserted the insurgent standard, under which they had so 
often marched to victory, thousands of true men and trusty 
leaders still kept the field, resolved never more to place their 
necks under the yoke of their English taskmasters. 

The second division of the insurgent army, under their 
leaders, Kyan and Garret Byrne, had, on the same day, moved 
in the direction of Gorey. This division was considerably 
augmented by five thousand men under Edward Roche, who, 
having arrived too late to take part in the battle of Vinegar 
Hill, now bravely resolved to repair, if possible, the loss occa- 
sioned by his absence. To Father J. Murphy and Edward 
Roche, must be given the credit of rallying the insurgents dis- 
persed through the town, and leading them forth once more 
to renew the contest. The division of the insurgent army that 
set out from Wexford on the evening of the 21st, halted but 
a short time at the Three Rocks, and then resumed their 
march in the direction of Sleedah, a small village in the barony 
of Bantry. This force numbered in all about 3,000 men, who 
were chiefly from the northern parts of the county of Wex- 
ford, together with the brave Wicklow men, who had followed 
the national flag from the very outset. On the arrival of this 

243 



244 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

small force at Sleedali, the place cliosen for the night's 
bivouac, a council of war was held to deliberate on their fur- 
ther proceedings. At this council were present Father John 
Murphy, Father P. Roche, Anthony Perry, and Edward Fitz- 
gerald, with other leaders of less note. Here it was that the 
Rev. P. Roche declared his intention of proceeding to Wex- 
ford in the hope of obtaining terms from General Lake for 
himself and his comrades. He further proposed that they 
(the insurgents) should remain in their present position until 
they should hear of the terms he confidently hoped to obtain. 
His brother chiefs, however, did not share in these delusive 
expectations, and endeavored to dissuade him from this fatal 
project. Father John, who, with his usual keen perception, 
divined the probable result, did his utmost to prevail on his 
friend to remain, and not thus uselessly endanger his life 
in seeking mercy from men who had never shown it. But the 
arguments and entreaties of Father John and the rest were 
of no avail. 

Before the day had dawned the unfortunate gentleman rode 
off alone toward Wexford, hopeful of finding in the breasts of 
the English generals that generous spirit of mercy to which his 
own manly heart had never been a stranger. As his friends 
foretold, he failed to accomplish his purpose, and fell a sacri- 
fice to his fatal error. 

On entering Wexford he was seized, dragged from his 
horse, kicked and buffeted in the most brutal manner, and 
thrown into prison, which he did not quit till he was led to 
execution. Of this clergyman, Mr. Gordon says: "Many 
Protestants owed their lives to his intercession." The same 
may be said with perfect truth of all the other priests who 
took an active part in the insurrection. 

Father Philip Roche, who thus fell a victim to the spirit 
of the time, was a man of commanding stature and fine pres- 
ence. His manners were bland and courteous, and he evinced 
during his short career as a military leader considerable 
talent. He was much lamented, and his death threw addi- 
tional gloom over the cause in which he had been so conspicu- 
ous a leader. Hardly had poor Father Roche set out alone 
for Wexford than Father John gave orders to break up in 
the bivouac at Sleedah, and prepared to march in the direc- 
tion of Fooke's Mill and Longraig. At the latter place the 
insurgents passed over the ground whereon the battle had 



The Rising of '98 245 

been recently fought between the force under Sir John Moore 
and that commanded by Father Eoche. The unburied bodies 
of the slain still strewed the ground and made a ghastly scene 
for the eyes of the passing insurgents, who, however, did not 
halt, but pursued their march with unwearied activity. They 
encountered but little opposition on their way, the yeomen 
cavalry behaving with their usual cowardice, appearing at a 
distance, firing at the advancing column, and then betaking 
themselves to instant flight. 

The insurgents were now marching by circuitous routs, 
with the intention of penetrating into the neighboring counties 
of Carlow and Kilkenny, and thus drawing the troops from 
Wexford in pursuit, and affording to their scattered and dis- 
heartened, but as yet, unsubdued comrades there, an opportu- 
nity of rallying for another and more successful effort. As 
they approached the boundary of the county, the opposition 
offered to their advance increased. The yeomanry appeared 
in larger bodies, and seemed more inclined to come to close 
quarters. At the village of Killane, the birth-place of the 
gallant Kelly, they opposed the further progress of the in- 
surgents, but were soon put to flight and pursued till they 
reached the village of Kiledmond. At this place, being 
strongly reinforced, the yeoman resolved to make a stand, 
and, with a considerable force of infantry and cavalry, essayed 
to oppose the passage of the insurgents through the town, sta- 
tioning themselves in the principal street. But they were 
unable to withstand the charge of the fierce pikemen, and fled 
after a brief resistance, setting fire beforehand to the village. 
The insurgents, by command of Father John, set fire to the 
barracks they had occupied. Having thus once more obtained 
a signal triumph over their enemies, the small force of in- 
surgents proceeded a short distance beyond the village, and 
there bivouacked for the night. These brave men had been 
on the march since early morning, and during that time had 
traversed the entire county of Wexford, and crowned the 
day's labor by a successful battle. 

On the following morning the insurgents were early astir, 
and received with warlike joy the intelligence that a regular 
force of cavalry and infantry was stationed at Goresbridge to 
oppose the passage of the Barrow. After such a meal as 
their scanty store could furnish, the men, at the command of 
their leaders, fell into marching order and set out in the direc- 



246 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

tion of those new enemies. When they arrived within sight 
of the town, they were furiously charged by the Fourth Dra- 
goon Guards, but they sustained the fierce onset of their assail- 
ants without flinching, and forced them to beat a hasty retreat. 
The defeated dragoons fell back on their infantry, the Wex- 
ford Militia, which corps received their insurgent countrymen 
with a volley of musketry, which, however, did not prove fatal 
to any. It is probable that the men were unwilling instru- 
ments in the hands of their taskmasters, and did not wish to 
take the lives of their own brethren. The conduct of their 
officer seems to confirm this view of their inclinations; for, 
while the force under his command maintained a feeble and 
apparently harmless fire, he seized the opportunity of mount- 
ing behind a dragoon and galloped off in the direction of Kil- 
kenny without waiting the issue of the contest. Upon this his 
men ceased to fire, were surrounded, and made prisoners. The 
result of this affair gives us an idea of the feeling by which 
a great many of the militia regiments were animated, and 
how little reliance the British Grovernment could place on 
them to serve as executioners of their fellow-countrymen. 
The majority, however, of the rank and file of the Wexford 
Militia were Catholics, whose sympathies were naturally with 
their fellow-countrymen and co-religionists. The insurgents 
having achieved this signal success, took possession of Gores- 
bridge, where they obtained a quantity of flour. Thence they 
proceeded towards the ridge of Leinster, where they pitched 
their camp for the night. We regret to have to record a cruel 
deed of revenge perpetrated in the insurgent camp during 
the night, not, indeed, by the insurgents, but by some of the 
militia captured in the fight of the preceding day. It seems 
that amongst the prisoners taken were some Orangemen who 
had formely treated with great cruelty their Catholic com- 
rades, on the supposition of their being United Irishmen. 
These injured men, yielding to the fell spirit of revenge en- 
gendered by the memory of their wrongs, rose during the 
night and murdered their former tyrants. It was a cruel deed, 
and a lamentable instance of the sad fruits of the hateful 
Orange system. Before we further pursue the fortunes of 
these brave men, we will, for a brief while, retrace our steps 
to consider the condition of the inhabitants of Wexford. The 
regular troops and yeomanry emulated each other in diabol- 
ical cruelty ; and, to deepen the horrors of the period, a brutal 



The Rising of '98 



247 



horde of German mercenaries, called Hessians, were let loose 
on the people. Tradition has handed down amongst the peo- 
ple the name and deeds of this demon crew, and, for years 
after, the mere mention of these loathed and accursed Hes- 
sians was sufficient to call the indignant blood to the cheek of 
manhood, and to cast a pallor over that of a woman. In fact, 
so desolate had the country become that none save the old, de- 
crepit, or the idiotic were to be encountered on the roads, in 
the houses, or fields. But neither the decrepitude of age, nor 
the deprivation of reason, that even amongst the fiercest and 
most savage children of nature throws a shield over utter 
helplessness, afforded any protection from the indiscriminate 
fury of England's swordsmen. We would fain pass over in 
silence the wrongs inflicted on helpless women. More merci- 
ful had it been for these vile mercenaries to have plunged their 
swords into the bosoms of those Irish maids and matrons than 
to have subjected them to their brutal appetites. 




Sculpture on a Capital: Priest's House, Glendalough: Beranger, 1779. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ATTACK ON CASTLE COMER— TREACHERY OF THE COLLIERS — CAP- 
TURE OF FATHER JOHN. 

Before dawn the insurgents set out for the village of 
Dunain, where they arrived about five in the morning. Here 
they were joined by a large body of colliers (from an extensive 
coal mine in the vicinity) armed with swords and pistols of 
an indifferent description. On arriving at Dunain they heard 
that four hundred men of the Water ford Militia had just 
quitted the village, and had gone in the direction of Castle- 
comer. Father John, whose energetic spirit ever urged him 
on to some new and perilous undertaking, now set out with a 
part of his force, including the lately- joined colliers, by a short 
route across the fields, to attack the English force at Castle- 
comer, leaving the rest, under another leader, to proceed to 
the same place by the less direct route of the high road. When 
the leader of the second division arrived within a short dis- 
tance of the above-named town, he descried a body of about 
200 English soldiers drawn up on the road along which his 
advance was directed. On seeing the approach of the insur- 
gents, who came on at a running pace, these men raised aloft 
a white flag on the end of a bayonet, and appeared to desire 
a parley, evidently with the intention of surrendering. The 
insurgent chief, having halted his men, urged his horse on 
before them to ascertain the intention of the military, and on 
drawing nearer found they were a part of the Waterford 
Militia, cut off, by the unexpected and rapid advance of the 
insurgents, from their regiment, and desirous, on receiving 
suitable terms, of surrendering. The terms they sought were 
willingly granted by the insurgent leader, who returned 
toward his own men, riding at the head of the militia, one of 
whom held his horse 's bridle. 

But this pacific arrangement was unfortunately discon- 
certed by an untoward occurrence. One of the insurgents, 
who happened to be absent during the negotiation, suddenly 
emerged from the field upon the road, and seeing the strange 
position of his captain, naturally supposed him to be a pris- 
oner, and without further reflection drove his pike into the 

249 



250 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

body of the soldier who held his rein, whereupon one of the 
militia officers, supposing this to be a part of a preconcerted 
plan, discharged the contents of his pistol at the insurgent 
chief, while another ordered his men to fire upon his fol- 
lowers. The leader's horse received the missile intended for 
his master, and fell. But the body of the insurgents advanc- 
ing swiftly toward them, the soldiers threw away their arms 
and accountrements, and betook themselves to a hasty flight. 

Many of them were captured in the pursuit that ensued, 
and the few that reached Castlecomer, and rejoined their 
comrades there, found that they had fared but little better 
than themselves in the contest with the insurgents under 
Father John. When the second division arrived in Castle- 
comer, at the heels of the flying soldiery, they found the town 
already in possession of their comrades, with the exception of 
a large house, the mansion of Lady Anne Butler, into which 
the defeated troops had retreated, and from the numerous 
windows of which they now poured out a hot and deadly fire 
on those who were engaged in its siege. 

The house, which had proved so fortunate a refuge for 
the king's troops, was lofty and very strongly built, and ad- 
mirably adapted to the purpose which it at present served, 
and, indeed, could hardly be taken without the aid of bat- 
tering cannon. In vain did the insurgents attempt to ap- 
proach the house under the imperfect shelter of loads of hay 
and straw; the vigilant besieged shot the men who impelled 
the carts, and thus rendered their efforts futile. Finding 
their efforts unavailing to force an entrance under such a 
heavy fire, the insurgents at length resolved to drive the de- 
fenders from the house by setting it on fire, placing quantities 
of dried wood and other combustible matter at its rear. The 
house was soon on fire, and the insurgent chiefs, desirous to 
save the lives of the besieged, sent from amongst their prison- 
ers a black servant, bearing terms to be granted in case they 
surrendered. The messenger in question, carrying a flag of 
truce, was admitted, and presently returned with the answer 
of the garrison, that they were willing to surrender, but only 
on condition of receiving a written protection from the chiefs. 
This protection was immediately despatched, but the black 
soon returned to say that the besieged now refused to sur- 
render, as they had descried a large force of royal troops has- 
tening to their assistance. This unexpected news received 



The Rising of '98 251 

immediate confirmation. Loud volleys of musketry, now heard 
coming from a hill outside the town, announced the approach 
of a new enemy. The force from which this firing proceeded 
being as yet at some distance, the insurgents found time to 
collect their scattered forces, and take up a favorable position 
on a rising ground that fronted the advancing enemy. This 
newly arrived foe proved to be General Sir Charles Asgill, 
who had marched with his division from Kilkenny to the aid 
of the royal troops in Castlecomer, The insurgents jjroceeded 
some distance outside the town, before coming in sight of the 
English force. 

At length, having passed a large grove that lay on their 
right flank, they came in full view of Askill's force drawn up 
in a line of battle at no great distance. Strange to say, the 
insurgents were allowed to gain the position they desired, 
marching all the while with their right flank exposed to the 
enemy. While the insurgents were pushing rapidly onwards 
to gain their intended position in front of AsgilPs force, a 
soldier was observed running at full speed towards them from 
the hostile ranks. He was fired on by those he had deserted, 
but had the good fortune to escape unhurt, and joined the 
insurgents with the welcome intelligence that many of his 
comrades but awaited an opportunity to desert the English 
standard. The insurgents at length attained the desired posi- 
tion, and awaited with their usual ardor the signal for attack. 
However, no sign of hostility was shown by their red-coated 
foes, from whom they had expected a very different recep- 
tion. Great was their astonishment on beholding, a few mo- 
ments later, the entire division of the English general— horse, 
foot, and artillery— wheel about and commence a rapid re- 
treat toward Kilkenny, from whence they came on their abor- 
tive expedition. The tired insurgents continued their march 
through the apathetic population of Kilkenny, and encamped 
for the night in Queen's County, whose inhabitants seemed 
equally indifferent with those of Kilkenny, with unaccountable 
folly neglecting this grand opportunity, afforded the first time 
during centuries of slavery, of shaking off the yoke of their 
English masters. Seeing the unwillingness of these miserable 
people to join their ranks, the gallant Wexford men directed 
their march towards their native county, with the design of re- 
uniting their force to that which had left the county town on 
the 21st of June to proceed in the direction of Wicklow. During 



252 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

all this day they pursued their homeward march without en- 
countering an enemy, and at a late hour in the evening arrived 
at the hill of Kilcommey, where they pitched their camp for the 
night. When the insurgents awoke on the ensuing morning 
from their sorely needed repose, they discovered that an act of 
unparalleled treachery had been perpetrated by the villainous 
colliers upon whose assistance they had so much relied. These 
treacherous allies foully deceived the brave men who had so 
confidently trusted them, and, while the latter were buried in 
sleep, had arisen and deserted them, plundering them of al- 
most all their firearms, and leaving them, as far as was in 
their power, at the mercy of their numerous foes. Detestable 
treachery, the thought of which fills the heart with indignation 
that words fail to express ! Surrounded on all sides by their 
cruel and merciless foes, foully plundered and betrayed by the 
infamous colliers, wearied and travel-worn, the grand spirit 
that had animated these heroic men from the outset still up- 
held them under their accumulating misfortune. But a fresh 
trial now awaited their courage and endurance. They ascer- 
tained from one of their scouts that the king's troops were 
gathering around them, advancing from different quarters. 

This intelligence determined their leaders to lose no time 
in making a vigorous onset on some one or other of the ap- 
proaching forces. They resolved to direct their attack 
against a body of troops stationed to defend the pass of 
Scollagh Gap. Accordingly, the insurgents, to the number of 
4,000 men, the pikemen forming the main body, marching in 
columns, with as many gunsmen as they could muster on 
either flank, and in the rear, advanced up the pass. The sol- 
diery stationed in the defile made but slight resistance to the 
furious onslaught of the pikemen, while the few insurgent 
gunsmen, sheltering themselves behind the rocks that project 
on either side, picked down every officer that was exposed to 
their deadly aim. Thus did the insurgents once more put to a 
disgraceful flight the trained mercenaries who marched under 
the proud flag of England. General Asgill, though in the vi- 
cinity with 4,000 regular troops, prudently shunned an en- 
counter with the insurgents, finding, doubtless, far more con- 
genial occupation in the cold-blooded butchery of the unfortu- 
nate and defenseless people of the district around Kilcomney. 
In this, as in the other battles fought by the insurgents of 
this division, they were possessed of no artillery. Now, alas ! 



The Rising of '98 253 

to use the words of Miles Byrne, ' ' a dismal cloud overcast all 
the hopes of the insurgents. ' ' Their most beloved and trust- 
ing chief was missing. He had planned the successful passage 
of Scollagh Gap, had been seen in the combat that ensued, 
but soon after mysteriously disappeared. The loss of Father 
John was irreparable, for he had been the soul of the enter- 
prise. Wise to plan, and full of energy to execute, he had 
ever led his brave and devoted men to certain victory. But 
now, alas ! he was to be seen no more at their head. This was 
the severest blow that adverse fortune had inflicted on these 
gallant patriots, who had hitherto continued to struggle with 
invincible courage against the most fearful odds. It was com- 
monly believed amongst those who with such deep sorrow de- 
plored his loss that, having ridden out to reconnoitre, he had 
been surprised by a party of the enemy, and slain while re- 
sisting capture. In whatever way he may have met his death, 
his loss inflicted a severe blow on the insurgent cause. Hav- 
ing, as we have seen, effected so gallantly the passage of Scol- 
lagh Gap, the insurgents halted to consult together on what 
steps were next to be taken. But the voice of their wisest 
and bravest leader was now unheard in their council. A dif- 
ference of opinion as to their future route arose amongst 
them. Many were of opinion that the wood of Kilaughrim, 
some five miles distant, would be the best position, whilst 
others were desirous of proceeding in the direction of Wick- 
low, to join the division from which they had separated at 
Wexford town. They finally separated, to form two bodieS; 
one party taking the direction of the Wicklow mountainsj 
while the other sought the cover of Kilaughrim wood. 



CHAPTER XV. 

VENGEANCE FOR THE MURDER OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN — ROUT 
OF THE ORANGEMEN AT BALLYRACKEEN. 

Monaseed, the birtHplaee of so many brave insurgents, lay 
directly on the route of those who moved in the direction of 
Wicklow; and there they made a brief stay, and heard with 
joy of the many splendid achievements of the gallant band 
they were in quest of. There, too, with feelings of anger and 
indignation too deep for utterance, they heard of the number- 
less deeds of inhuman cruelty perpetrated by the yeoman 
and the regular soldiery on the wounded and defenceless who 
had the misfortune to fall into their power. One authentic in- 
stance, selected from hundreds equally so, may suffice to af- 
ford some idea of the conduct of the loyalists of the period. 
Hunter Gowan, that incarnation of fiendish cruelty, being his 
Majesty's Justice of the Peace, and likewise captain of yeoman 
cavalry (consequently enjoying complete dominion over the 
property and lives of the mere Irish of the day), entered the 
house of a neighbor of his, named Patrick Bruslan— one of the 
bravest men in the insurgent army, and then lying ill of a 
wound— and inquired in the kindest terms about his health. 
The wife of the wounded man, of whom he had made these 
apparently friendly inquiries, conducted him, at his request, 
to her husband's bedside, that he might, as he said, '* enjoy 
the pleasure of a chat with his old neighbor." Gowan stood 
at the bedside of the wounded insurgent, and stretched out 
his hand, as if in friendly greeting ; but when the unsuspecting 
Bruslin grasped it, Gowan drew a pistol from his pocket with 
the disengaged hand, and shot him through the heart. Then, 
turning to depart, he said to the unfortunate widow he had 
just made, **You will now be saved the trouble of nursing 
your d— d Popish rebel husband." The insurgents soon 
quitted Monaseed, and, pursuing their march, had the good 
fortune to encounter at the "White Heaps the division of their 
army with which they desired to affect a union. The chiefs 
of this division were Garret Byrne, Esmond Kyan, Edward 
Roche, and Nicholas Murphy. Many others, however, had 
fallen in the different combats that had taken place since their 

255 



256 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

departure from Wexford. The united force bivouacked for 
the night at Ballyfad, where their number was augmented by 
the arrival of many who had quitted them to visit their fam- 
ilies. Having now to narrate the history of that division of 
the insurgent force which quitted Wexford on the 21st to pro- 
ceed in the direction of Wicklow, we must go back to the day 
of their departure. This division, as well as that which left 
the town about the same time under the command of Father 
J. Murphy, was considerably thinned by the delusive hopes 
created by the negotiations for peace at Wexford. However, 
at setting out on their march, they mustered about 7,000 men, 
armed in the usual way, and, as commonly happened, very 
much in want of ammunition for the few firearms they pos- 
sessed. They proceeded on the first day as far as Peppard's 
Castle, where they rested for the night. On the ensuing morn- 
ing the chiefs agreed to march towards the Wicklow moun- 
tains, and with their usual promptitude set out at once on 
their way thither. When in the vicinity of Gorey they alighted 
upon a horrible spectacle. The road along which they 
marched was strewn with the dead and horribly mangled 
bodies of women and children. Many of these victims lay 
with their bowels stripped open, and presented to the eyes of 
their countrymen a ghastly spectacle, well calculated to fill 
them with mingled feeling of horror and compassion, and 
to rouse them to a determination to take the direst revenge 
on the cowardly perpetrators of such worse than savage bar- 
barities. This massacre was occasioned by the insurgent's 
retreat from Vinegar Hill; for the English regular soldiery 
and their blood-thirsty associates, the Orangemen or yeo- 
manry—the terms are synonymous— who had taken shelter 
within their entrenchments from the furious storm of insur- 
gent warfare, on hearing of this unexpected step on the part of 
the insurgents, sailed out from their lurking-places, and imme- 
diately overran the country, flooding it with the blood of its 
unfortunate inhabitants, and practising every vile and in- 
human cruelty that their inventive malice could suggest. 
Against this horde of murderous villains the vengeful insur- 
gents now directed their arms. Changing for a time their 
route, they began to search for their scattered foes in the 
vicinity of Gorey. Many of the marauders were surprised in 
the houses of the peasantry in the very act of perpetrating 
their unspeakable villainies. Being caught red-handed, they 



The Rising of '98 257 

were slain on the spot. The alarm being spread through their 
dispersed forces, they rallied together in considerable num- 
bers. They were routed after a brief resistance, and pursued 
to Gorey, where, attempting to make a stand, they were 
again signally defeated, and pursued with severe loss 
toward Arklow. Such of the insurgents as were mounted pur- 
sued the flying foe as far as Coolgreny, where many of them 
fell by the hands of the victorious avengers. While this pur- 
suit was maintained by some detached parties of the insur- 
gents, their main body halted at Gorey, awaiting the return 
of their absent comrades. On the return of these the entire 
column set out for Crogan Hill, at the foot of which they en- 
camped for the night. The day on which the gallant insur- 
gents so well avenged the terrible wrongs inflicted on their 
wives, mothers, and children has been called the ^* blood Fri- 
day," on account of the blood that was shed so abundantly 
thereon. 

The forces engaged in this massacre of the defenceless 
and unresisting were the ancient Britons— a Welsh regiment 
—in conjunction with many of the yeomanry corps of the 
county, whose chiefs were Hunter Go wan, Beaumont of Hyde 
Park, Ram of Gorey, the Earl of Mountnorres— names to be 
met with in the different narratives of those fearful times, 
when the demons of cruelty and bloodshed reigned supreme. 
Notwithstanding all these dreadful deeds of cruelty, of which 
their friends and relatives were the victims, be it here re- 
corded to the honor of the valiant peasantry, so foully as- 
persed by the Orange historians, that though they had taken 
numbers of prisoners, none suffered death at their hands, for 
which humanity they got little credit. The insurgent army 
remained encamped on Croghan Mountain during this day, 
and employed themselves in gathering provisions and collect- 
ing amunition, in both of which employments their success 
was but limited. 

On the morning of the 25th of June the insurgents 
marched to Hacketstown, encountering on their way some 
corps of yeoman cavalry, whom they put to immediate flight. 
On drawing near the town, they found the English infantry 
drawn up in a field outside it, prepared to dispute their en- 
trance. Upon this force, numbering about 200 men, the pike- 
men fell furiously, soon routing them, and leaving their cap- 
tain (Hardy) dead upon the field, together with thirty of 



258 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

his men. The insurgents now entered the town, and proceeded 
to attack the barracks, in which their discomfited foes had 
found refuge. Adjoining this building, but projecting farther 
into the street, stood a large malt-house, in which a party of 
armed loyalists had taken post for the purpose of aiding the 
royal troops. The front of the barracks and one side of the 
malt-house met and formed an angle, so that from one build- 
ing a direct, and from the other a flanking fire could be poured 
upon the attacking party. 

Both these buildings were of great strength, and in fact 
well nigh impregnable to assailants unprovided with artillery. 
The roof of the barracks was surrounded by a parapet, from 
behind which the besieged could take aim with almost perfect 
security. To obtain possession of them was the object to 
which the insurgents now bent all their energies. A low wall, 
running parallel to the front wall of the barracks, afforded 
a partial and insuflBcient shelter to the insurgent gunsmen, 
from behind which they could take aim at such of the loyal- 
ists as showed themselves at the windows of the malt-house, 
or over the parapet of the barracks. The insurgents, indeed, 
fought at great disadvantage, and under the galling fire of 
their well-sheltered foes numbers of them fell. But nothing 
could excel the heroic resolution and rare intrepidity they 
displayed in the course of this unwise attempt to take a forti- 
fied house without the aid of even a single piece of artillery. 
Their leaders in this affair were Garrett Byrne, Edward Fitz- 
gerald, and Michael Eeynolds. The latter gentleman signally 
distinguished himself during the action. The Wexfordians, 
accustomed as they were to see men bear themselves bravely 
in battle, were struck with admiration at the extraordinary 
coolness displayed by Eeynolds, who exposed his person fear- 
lessly on all occasions when it was necessary to direct the 
efforts of the assailants, not seeming to regard in the least 
the bullets that showered around him thick as hail. While 
the unequal contest was maintained by the gunsmen on both 
sides, a party of the insurgents endeavored to drive the 
enemy from their retreat by setting it on fire. This daring 
attempt they persevered in for several hours, one party 
after another advancing to the assault under such cover as 
feather beds and loads of straw fastened upon carts afforded. 
Many gallant men lost their lives in these useless efforts, for 
the bullets of the defenders reached them through and under 



The Rising of '98 259 

their insufficient cover. But undeterred by their heavy losses, 
they still carried on the desperate conflict, wreckless of life, 
and resolved to prevail or perish. 

And, in truth, could the most persevering and dauntless 
resolution have effected the object they aimed at, it would 
have accomplished it. It was in advancing to one of the as- 
saults referred to that young James Murphy, a nephew of 
Father Machael, lost his life. He was shot by one of the sol- 
diers posted in the barracks, an excellent marksman, who had 
already slain several of the insurgents. But the death of this 
young man was soon after avenged by his friend Myles 
Doran, of Cloughmore, who brought down the sharp-shooting 
red-coat, with a well directed bullet. 

Towards evening partial success seemed to reward the 
persevering intrepidity of the insurgents. The malt-house 
was abandoned by its loyalist defenders; but the fire from 
that building had scarce ceased when a fresh one was opened 
upon them from the house of the Rev. Mr. McGee, a Protestant 
clergyman, within which he, with several of his friends, had 
barricaded themselves, resolved to assist, with all their power, 
the besieged soldiery, and inflict a crushing defeat upon a 
common enemy. 

But still the latter maintained the conflict with unabated 
fierceness, although the bodies of their dead and wounded 
comrades strewed the ground even more thickly as the hours 
passed on ; nor did they desist from an enterprise they should 
never have attempted till darkness began to gather round the 
scene of desperate strife, and rendered its continuance im- 
possible. During the night the insurgents withdrew from the 
place where so many precious lives had been unavailingly 
sacrified, carrying with them their numerous wounded, but 
leaving upon the field of conflict the dead bodies of upwards 
of two hundred men. The total loss, in killed and wounded, 
on the side of the loyalists, did not amount to more than fifty 
of their entire number. 

Next day the Irish army marched towards Croghan Hill 
—one of the Wicklow mountains. Here they remained unmo- 
lested by the enemy during the 27th and 28th of June. On 
the morning of the 29th, having resolved to attack the town of 
Carnew, they set out at an early hour on their march thither, 
halting for a short space at Monaseed, to obtain whatever re- 
freshments the little village afforded, The insurgents ha^ 



260 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

quitted tlie village but a short time when it was entered by 
the celebrated cavalry regiment of Ancient Britons, followed 
by several corps of mounted yeomen— the latter desiring to 
act as executioners on the insurgents, whom they hoped soon 
to see defeated by their more warlike comrades. Amongst 

these infamous villains were the Earls of C and M , 

who were not ashamed to be the leaders of such a vile crew 
of cowardly cutthroats. These royalist forces, having learned 
at Monaseed that the insurgents complained of being extreme- 
ly fatigued by their incessant marching, and, moreover, that 
their ammunition was quite exhausted, considered them a sure 
prey ; and, elated by the hope of a complete victory, and sup- 
plied with such an amount of Dutch courage as their abundant 
potations at Monaseed .could inspire, they, rode on in pursuit 
of an enemy they had already, in imagination, vanquished. 
The regular cavalry led the advance, while their numerous 
yeomen allies followed, as was their wont, in the rear. They 
were now about a mile from Carnew, and were come to a place 
where the road was bounded by an old deerpark wall on the 
right, and on the left by a huge ditch, which ran in the midst 
of swampy ground. "While riding at a hand gallop along the 
part of the road thus enclosed, they found that their further 
advance was arrested by a barricade formed of carts thrown 
across the road. This unexpected obstacle of course brought 
them to a dead halt. Before they had time to advance or 
retreat, their hitherto concealed foes rose suddenly from be- 
hind the ditch and wall we have described, and while the guns- 
men poured a deliberate fire, every shot of which told, into 
their surprised and dismayed ranks, the more dreadful pike- 
men sprang forth from the same ambush, and were in an in- 
stant in their midst. We might pity these unfortunate dra- 
goons had not the ferocious character of their crimes closed 
our hearts to all softer feelings. After a fight that lasted 
about half an hour, every man of the regiment that rode from 
Monaseed in all the pride of anticipated conquest, lay on the 
road either dead or dying. Thus perished the infamous cav- 
alry regiment called Ancient Britons, receiving the retribu- 
ion that falls on such red-handed sons of Cain sooner or later. 
But where were the burly yeomen who rode so gladly in their 
train to aid in an enterprise that promised such an abundant 
harvest of blood ? These heroes remained on a rising ground 
at some distance to the right, while their accomplices in crime 



The Rising of '98 261 

underwent their bloody ordeal, without offering them the 
slightest aid, and when they saw that all was over gave spurs 
to their horses, and rode off in the greatest terror and dismay. 
The intelligence of the defeat and total destruction of the 
Ancient Britons at Ballyellis was carried rapidly over the 
entire country, causing great joy to the defenders of liberty, 
and striking terror into the hearts of tyrants and their instru- 
ments. It reached the English infantry on their way from 
Carnew to the scene of action, and caused them to retreat. 
They took refuge in a large malt-house, where they fortified 
themselves as best they could, and awaited the attack of their 
rapidly advancing foes. Here the scene that occurred at 
Hacketstown was re-enacted— insurgents' bravery wasting 
itself vainly on stone walls, and many brave men losing their 
lines in a fruitless essay to ta,ke a strongly-built, well-gar- 
risoned house without artillery. The insurgent leaders, deem- 
ing it a useless sacrifice of life to continue the attack on the 
malt-house, drew their men off, and marched to Kilcavan 
Hill, where they remained for the night, greatly elated by the 
victory they had achieved. On this morning the insurgents 
shook off slumber at an early hour, and, before the sun had 
risen, were on their way to Shillelah, and, passing by that 
village, took post on Ballyrakeen Hill where they remained 
for the night. 

July 1st.— This being a great day of anniversary with the 
Orangemen, these miserable traitors, whose dastardly 
triumphs are all founded on the humiliation of their country, 
whose curse and ruin they have ever been, resolved to signal- 
ize it by a furious and decisive onslaught on the few brave men 
who held aloft the national flag on Ballyrakeen Hill. Towards 
the hill in question came troops of the various corps of yeo- 
man cavalry, while their infantry showed an unusual deter- 
mination to come to close quarters with their ancient enemies. 
"With equal ardor the Irish troops— for though the Orange- 
men were born in Ireland their constant and unnatural hatred 
of her cause deprives them of all right to be called Irishmen- 
rushed to meet their treacherous foes, charging down the 
slope of the hill in a firm phalanx of pikemen, intermingled 
and flanked by gunsmen, on their enemy's lines. In vain the 
hostile cavalry essayed to check by their furious charge that 
unyielding cohort of brothers who fought in the sacred cause 
of country; in vain the infantry poured the leaden hail into 



262 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

their ranks. Every man in tlie insurgent ranks was a hero re- 
solved to conquer or perish in the sacred cause. The insur- 
gent force was now assailed on all sides by the cavalry, who, 
confiding in their numbers, and, perhaps anxious to retrieve 
their characters from the too well-merited stigma of cowar- 
dice, continued to attack with unwonted spirit. But this could 
make no impression on the ranks of their opponents, and they 
retired from each unsuccessful charge with diminished num- 
bers. The gunsmen attached to the insurgent force remained 
to protect the flanks, answering with well-directed volleys the 
fire of the enemy's infantry. At length, after nearly an 
hour's fighting, victory again favored the brave insurgents. 
Hundreds of their f oeman lay stretched upon the ground dead 
or severely wounded, while their comrades, cavalry and in- 
fantry, unable to maintain any longer the combat against such 
determined foes, took to flight in different directions— the cav- 
alry galloping away at foxhunting speed, leaving their in- 
fantry to make the best retreat they could. The latter, being 
closely pursued by the pikemen, took refuge within the man- 
sion of Captain Chamney, which stood at the foot of the hill, 
and from its safe shelter defied their victorious foes. Here 
again bravery that proved invincible in the field in fair fight 
was foiled when opposed by stone walls that sheltered a beaten 
foe. Seeing the uselessness of prolonging such an attack, the 
men at the command of their leaders desisted from it, and 
marched off in the direction of Wicklow Gap, having obtained 
by the day 's victory a fair supply of firearms and ammunition. 
The fruits of many hard fought engagements having been lost 
to the insurgents by reason of their enemies taking refuge in 
large isolated, strongly-built mansions, it became evident to 
the leaders that to pursue their enterprise with any chance 
of success all such buildings must necessarily be destroyed. 
They came to this resolution with regret, but it was with them 
a question of life or death, and half -measures in such a posi- 
tion were simply madness. The insurgents pursued their 
route towards Wicklow Gap, marching all night, and, having 
arrived there on the following morning, pitched their camps, 
remaining during that day and the ensuing night. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PURNING AN ENGLISH CAMP— ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF BALLY- 
GULLEN— LAST STAND OF THE GALLANT WEXFORDMEN 

On this day, July 2nd, at their usual early hour, the insur- 
gents set out for Wicklow Gold Mines, with the design of 
burning the English camp, which was erected there in 1795. 
Having accomplished the desired feat, they returned by way 
of White Heaps, and took up a position at Ballyfad. The in- 
surgents, notwithstanding their great losses, both in men and 
leaders, were still a numerous force, and fairly armed with 
the spoils of their many victories. At the same time, also, 
they were augmented by the force under Father Keams, who 
had marched from Killaughrim Wood to join them. While 
the insurgent camp was pitched at Ballyfad, small parties 
were despatched in several directions to reconnoitre and 
bring back whatever intelligence they could obtain of the 
motions of the enemy. Towards dawn of the day some of 
the men who had been despatched on the previous evening 
on this important commission returned to report the advance 
of a formidable English force on their position. On the re- 
ceipt of this intelligence orders were at once issued to quit 
their present position and take up a better one on one of the 
hills in their vicinity. While the chiefs of the Irish army 
were choosing this position the near approach of the English 
force was announced by a volley from their advanced guard, 
which passed over the heads of a similar detachment of the 
insurgents. A dense fog, which since dawn had covered all 
the country around, occasioned some confusion amongst 
them, preventing them from ascertaining the position of the 
enemy they knew to be near, and even causing some detach- 
ments to stray from the main body. The rising sun at length 
dispersed the fog, and shining forth in unobscured splendor 
on the insurgent army revealed to them, as they marched from 
the hill in the direction of Gorey, a large force of English 
horse, foot, and artillery following in their rear at about the 
distance of a mile. The force was commanded by Sir James 
Duff, who had followed in the track of his enemy, but was 
unwilling to begin the contest till he had received reinforce- 

263 



264 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ments he expected from Greneral Needham. The insurgents, 
however, seeing that Sir James evinced no inclination of 
attack, rightly concluded that he waited reinforcements, and 
in consequence judged it better to give him battle before they 
arrived. With this resolve, they advanced some two miles 
along the Gorey road, their cautious enemy all the while hang- 
ing on their rear. The insurgents now left the high road, 
along which they had hitherto directed their march, and pro- 
ceeded by a narrow cross road that opened on their right and 
stretched towards the town of Ballygullen. When they had 
proceeded some distance along this new route, their gunsmen, 
in obedience to their leader's orders, left the ranks and sta- 
tioned themselves in ambush behind the fences that bounded 
the narrow road, while the main body fell into fighting order 
and moved steadily onward towards Ballygullen, as if they 
intended to pursue their march. It was designed by this 
movement to draw the enemy's cavalry, who had not seen 
the execution of tlie stratagem, and were unaware of the 
position of the ambushed gunsmen, under the fire of the latter. 
This skilled plan succeeded. The English cavalry, seeing the 
main body of the pikemen pursuing their march, continued 
to follow them until they came to where the concealed guns- 
men lay. Then the latter poured a close and destructive fire 
amongst them, killing a considerable number and causing the 
survivors to seek safety in instant flight. Had not the im- 
patience of the insurgents caused them to deliver their fire 
rather prematurely, this great body of cavalry might have 
been utterly destroyed ; as it was, their loss was so heavy that 
they made no appearance in the engagement that ensued. 
General Duff, on beholding the surprise and defeat of his 
cavalry, ordered his infantry to deploy into line and advance 
to meet their foes. A most sanguinary and fiercely-fought 
battle now ensued, in which both sides displayed the greatest 
bravery. The insurgent gunsmen maintained a deadly fire 
on the English ranks till their small supply of ammunition 
was entirely exhausted. It only then remained for the in- 
surgent leaders to bring their redoubted pikemen into action. 
This they did with their usual gallant promptitude, directing 
their attack on the right flank of the opposing force. General 
Puff, seeing this manoeuvre and believing that his men had 
got quite enough from the gunsmen without encountering 
those fearful pikemen, gave orders to retreat in the direction 



The Rising of '98 265 

of Gorey. The insurgents, though victorious in this hard- 
fought engagement, which lasted two hours, lost great num- 
bers of their men, and the regret caused by the loss of so 
many brave comrades was hardly counterbalanced by the 
knowledge that they had inflicted a far greater loss on their 
routed enemies. As soon as Duff's shattered forces had dis- 
appeared, they set out about collecting their wounded, and 
then quitted the scene of action and marched off towards a 
hill some half-mile distant therefrom. A council of war was 
held, to deliberate on their future course of action. At this 
council it was decided to divide their force rather than await 
united the combined and overpowering attack of the large 
English army at that time assembling in the county of Wex- 
ford from all parts of the three kingdoms. 

Of this action Mr. Plowden says: "Upon the arrival of 
the insurgents at a place called Cranford, by others Bally- 
guUen, they resolved to make resistance and await the ap- 
proach of the troops, however numerous they might be, 
although their own force was then very considerably reduced. 
They resolutely maintained the conflict for an hour and a 
half with the utmost intrepidity ; having repulsed the cavalry, 
and driven the artillerymen three times from their cannon, 
all performed by the gunsmen ; for the pikemen, as on former 
occasions, never came into action; but fresh reinforcements 
of the army pouring in on all sides, they were obliged to give 
way, quitting the field of battle with little loss to themselves, 
and notwithstanding all their fatigue retreating with their 
usual agility and swiftness in different directions." 

Mr. Plowden here admits that they defeated the force 
under General Duff, and only retreated on the approach of 
overwhelming reinforcements, which coincides with the ac- 
counts given by other authors. 

The AVicklow men resolved to seek the shelter of their 
native mountains ; some of them, however, choosing to remain 
with the Wexford men, who marched that same night for their 
former camping ground on the hill of Carrigrew. Though the 
battle of Ballygullen, or Cranford, may be said to have con- 
cluded the famous insurrection of 1798, as after that engage- 
ment none of much importance took place between the hostile 
forces, we think it right to follow to the end of their career 
those who took part in the heroic but unsilccessful struggle 
we have essayed to describe In the foregoing pages. 



266 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

The Wieklow men, after a brief repose, proceeded towards 
their proposed destination, passing Ferns and Carnew on 
their march. 

When at length night set in it found them still pushing 
steadily onward; nor did they halt till they had left Kilpipe 
and Aughrim far behind and gained the security they sought 
among their native mountains. 

In this retreat they long kept alive the scanty embers of 
a fire that had once burned with such bright and cheerful 
flames. Yet as they never could muster afterwards a suf- 
ficient force wherewith to encounter their foes in any con- 
siderable conflict, their adventurous and most daring exploits 
furnish matter suited rather for the romancist than the his- 
torian. 

In Emmet's memoirs we find a highly interesting narrative 
of the adventures of the small but heroic band who so long 
maintained those strongholds of nature, their own "native 
hills," against the numerous forces of military despatched 
against them, thus rendering their name one of terror to the 
English garrison of the lowlands. 

Hackett, Dwyer, Holt, and Garret Byrne were the chiefs of 
this small band, who never numbered more than two or three 
hundred men, but whose marvelous courage and activity ren- 
dered them formidable to their enemies. 

The lone Glenmalure afforded them for a long while a 
comparatively safe retreat, from which, however, they were 
finally driven by the king's troops. Their most effective and 
inveterate enemies were the kilted Highlanders, whose for- 
mer habits peculiarly fitted them for the effectual hunting 
down of the brave but unfortunate Wieklow mountaineers. 

The Wexford men, with their few Wieklow adherents, 
once more, and for the last time, assembled on the Hill of 
Carrigrew, having as their leaders Father Kearns, Anthony 
Perry of Inch, and Garret Byrne of Balljinanus. These brave 
chiefs determined to march forthwith into the county of Kil- 
dare and join their forces to those which were assembled there 
under the leadership of William Alymer. The desired junc- 
tion effected, the entire force, numbering in all some five 
hundred men, set out towards Meath with a view of surprising 
Athlone. 

On their march thither they arrived at the village of 
Clonard, where their progress was impeded by a galling fire 



The Rising of '98 267 

of musketry, directed against them from a fortified house 
occupied by Lieutenant Tyrrell and a corps of yeomanry 
under his command. 

The insurgents might have passed on, but, irritated by 
the loss they sustained, they halted to besiege the house. 
While engaged in this unwise attempt they were warned of 
the near approach of large royalist reinforcements from 
Kinnegad and Mullingar. On receiving this intelligence they 
desisted from the siege and pursued their uninterrupted 
march towards the village of Castlecarberry, where they 
remained for the night. 

This daring incursion of the "Wexford insurgents into 
Kildare alarmed, while it enraged, the numerous loyalists 
of that and the adjoining counties. Corps of yeomanry, 
mounted and on foot, and detachments of regular troops, were 
soon mustering to hunt down the daring band. On the ensu- 
ing day the latter resumed their march, and passed into the 
county of Meath without receiving all the while any aid from 
the peasantry, while hotly pursued by a host of foes. The 
first body of pursuers to come up with them was the Limerick 
Militia, under Colonel Gough. The militia poured a de- 
structive fire upon them, which, as their ammunition was 
spent, they were unable to return, and were consequently 
obliged to retreat with the loss of a few killed and many 
wounded. 

It was soon after this contest, if such it can be called, that 
Father Kearns and Anthony Perry were made prisoners. 
Three days after, the Catholic priest and the Protestant gen- 
tleman being tried (and of course found guilty) by court- 
martial, were hanged on the same gallows at Edenderry. 
They died as cheerfully as they had fought heroically for the 
good old cause of fatherland. Though unsuccessful in this 
affair, the insurgents still kept together, and, crossing the 
Eiver Boyne, entered the county Louth. But their pursuers 
pressed so closely upon them that the hunted Wexford men 
were at last forced to turn to bay. The place where they 
made their final stand was on the historic ground that lies 
between the Boyne and the town of Ardee. It was there that 
a large force of cavaliy, under the command of Major-General 
Wemys and Brigadier-General Meyrick, charged down upon 
the diminished ranks of the outwearied and half-famished 
pikemen. 



268 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

However, though wearied and outnumbered, they fought 
with desperate bravery, keeping their array, and repelling 
the furious and frequent charges of the English cavalry, whom 
they often forced to retire in confusion. 

But the appearance at this juncture of a large body of 
infantry, accompanied by artillerymen, showed them the use- 
lessness of further contest. 

Seeing their already thinned ranks still further diminished 
by the discharges of musketry and artillery, they began slowly 
to retreat, with their faces towards the foe, towards a large 
bog that lay on their right. 

Here they remained unpursued during the ensuing night; 
but, deeming it hopeless to protract the contest unaided as 
they were, they resolved to disperse and thus render their 
escape more easy. Before the morning dawned the greater 
number of the now hopeless insurgents began, with heavy 
hearts, their homeward journey— proceeding singly or by 
twos or threes ; but a small body keeping together, crossed the 
Boyne and pushed on towards Dublin. However, they did 
not succeed in reaching the metropolis, for, arriving at Bally- 
boghill, near Swords, the disheartened fugitives were encoun- 
tered and dispersed by a squadron of the Dumfries Dragoons. 

The Kev. Mr. Gordon thus narrates the last desperate 
struggles that closed the military career of the Wexford in- 
surgents: "Totally disappointed of their expected rein- 
forcements in the county of Meath, which had been lately 
disturbed, they passed the Boyne near Dunleek by a rapid 
motion into the county of Louth. Assailed on the fourteenth 
by two divisions of troops between this river and the Ardee, 
they made a desperate stand; but overpowered on arrival of 
more force with artillery, they broke and fled into a bog. 
Hence a part of them took the road to Ardee and dispersed, 
but the main body repassed the Boyne and were advancing 
directly towards Dublin with their usual swiftness when they 
were overtaken in a hot pursuit by Captain Gordon, of the 
Dumfries Light Dragoons, at Ballyboghill, within seven miles 
of the capital. As they would have been surrounded with 
detachments from different quarters, they fled and finally 
dispersed, severally endeavoring by devious ways to reach 
their homes or places of concealment.'' 

But the people of Wexford paid dearly for their gallant 



The Rising of '98 



269 



and persevering, tho' fruitless, effort to wrest their country 
from the iron grasp of a too powerful enemy. 

For months they successfully withstood the military might 
of the British empire, defeating her ablest generals in fair 
fight, and flaunting the green flag in triumph on fields where 
the proud standard of England lay trampled in the dust. If 
the cause of freedom failed the fault was not theirs. 

Had the rest of their countrymen awakened, even at the 
eleventh hour, Ireland had not now been an uncrowned nation. 




Ornament on leather case of Book of Armagh. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 




HENRY GRATTAN. 



SECTION IV. 



IN THE DAYS OF GRATTAN 



SIR JONAH HARRINGTON, LL. D., K. C. 

CONTAINING 

DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND IN THE DAYS OF GRATTAN— SCENES IN 
THE IRISH PARLIAMENT— DECLARATION OF IRISH RIGHTS— 
THE VOLUNTEERS PROCLAIM THE INDEPENDENCE OF IRE- 
LAND—THE PASSING OF THE ACCURSED UNION- 
SKETCHES OF GRATTAN, FLOOD, CHARLE- 
MONT, CURRAN AND OTHERS 



271 



IN THE DAYS OF GRATTAN- 

BY SIR JONAH BARRINGTON, LL. D., K. C. 



CHAPTER I. 



. ><- 



CAUSES OF IRELAND'S DEPRESSED CONDITION— IRELAND AROUSED BY 
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 

More than six centuries had passed away since Ireland 
had first acknowledged a subordinate connection with the 
English Monarchy— her voluntary but partial submission to 
the sceptres of Henry and of Richard had been construed by 
their successors into the right of conquest— and the same 
spirit of turbulence and discord which had generated the 
treachery and treasons of M'Morrough was carefully cul- 
tivated by every English potentate as the most effectual bar- 
rier against the struggles of a restless and semi-conquered 
people— and Ireland, helpless and distracted, groaned for 
ages in obscurity under the accumulated pressure of internal 
strife and external tyranny. 

The apathy produced by this habitual oppression had long 
benumbed the best energies of Ireland— her national spirit, 
depressed by the heavy hand of arbitrary restraint, almost 
forgot its own existence; and the proudest language of her 
constitution could only boast that she was the annexed de- 
pendent of a greater and a freer country. 

It was not until an advanced stage of the American revolt 
had attracted the attention of enlightened Europe to the first 
principles of civil liberty that Ireland began steadily to re- 
flect on her own deprivations. Commerce and constitution 
had been withdrawn from her grasp, and the usurped suprem- 
acy of the British Parliament gave a death blow to every 
struggle of Irish independence. 

But in whatever relative situation the two nations really 
stood, the same jealous and narrow principle might be per- 
ceived uniformly attending every measure enacted as to the 
Irish people. If at any time a cheering ray of commercial 
advantage chanced for a moment to illuminate the dreary 

273 



274 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

prospects of Ireland, the sordid spirit of monopoly instantly 
arose in England and rendered every effort to promote a 
beneficial trade or advance a rival manufacture vain and 
abortive. 

Commercial jealousy and arbitrary government united, 
therefore, to suppress every struggle of the Irish nation, and 
root up every seed of prosperity and civilization. 

Alarmed at the increasing population, the unsubdued 
spirit and the inexhaustible resources of that strong and fer- 
tile island, a dread of her growing power excited a fallacious 
jealousy of her future importance. In her timidity or her 
avarice England lost sight of her truest interests and of her 
nobler feelings, and kings, usurpers, and viceroys, as they 
respectively exercised the powers of government, all acted 
towards Ireland upon the same blind and arbitrary principles 
which they had imbibed from their education, or inherited 
from their predecessors. 

This desperate policy, so repugnant to the attachment, 
and fatal to the repose of the two countries, excited the spirit 
of -eternal warfare— an enthusiastic love of national inde- 
pendence sharpened the sword, and the zealots of religious 
fanaticism threw away the scabbard— the septs fought against 
each other, the English against all— the population was 
thinned, but the survivors became inveterate, and though the 
wars and the massacres of Elizabeth and of Cromwell, by 
depopulating, appeared to have subjugated the nation— the 
triumph was not glorious— and the conquest was not com- 
plete. 

Direct persecution against principles only adds fuel to a 
conflagration— the persons of men may be coerced— but it is 
beyond the reach of human power to subdue the rooted, 
hereditary passions and prejudices of a persevering, ardent, 
and patriotic people— such a nation may be gained over by 
address, or seduced by dissimulation, but can never be re- 
claimed by force, or overcome by persecution— yet from the 
very first intercourse between the two countries that de- 
structive system of force and of dissension, which so palpably 
led to the miseries of Ireland, had been sedulously cultivated 
and unremittingly persevered in. 

Thus grievously oppressed and ruinously disunited, Ire- 
land struggled often, but she struggled in vain ; the weight of 
her chains was too heavy for the feebleness of her constitu- 



In the Days of Grattan 275 

tion, and every effort to enlarge her liberty only gave a new 
pretext to the conqueror to circumscribe it within a still nar- 
rower compass. 

On the same false principle of government this oppressed 
nation was also systematically retained in a state of the 
utmost obscurity, and represented to the world as an insig- 
nificant and remote island, remarkable only for her turbulence 
and sterility ; and so perfectly did this misrepresentation 
succeed that, while every republic and minor nation of 
Europe had become the theme of travelers, and the subject 
of historians, Ireland was visited only to be despised, and 
spoken of only to be calumniated. In truth, she is as yet but 
little known by the rest of Europe, and but partially even to 
the people of England. But when the extraordinary capa- 
bilities, the resources, and the powers of Ireland are fully 
developed an interest must arise in every breast which reflects 
on her misfortunes. It is time that the curtain, which has 
been so long interposed between Ireland and the rest of 
Europe, should be drawn aside forever, and a just judgment 
formed of the impolicy of measures which have been adopted 
nominally to govern but substantially to suppress her power 
and prosperity. 

The position of Ireland upon the face of the globe pe- 
culiarly formed her for universal intercourse, and adapted 
her in every respect for legislative independence. Separated 
by a great sea from England— the Irish people, dissimilar in 
customs, more than equal in talent, and vastly superior in 
energy, possess an island about 900 miles in circumference; 
with a climate, for the general mildness of temperature and 
moderation of seasons, unrivalled in the universe— the parch- 
ing heats, or piercing colds, the deep snows, the torrent, and 
the hurricane, which other countries so fatally experience, are 
here unknown. Though her great exposure to the spray of 
the Atlantic increases the humidity of the atmosphere, it adds 
to the fecundity of the soil and distinguishes her fertile fields 
by the productions of an almost perpetual vegetation. 

The geographical situation of Ireland is not less favorable 
to commerce than her climate is to agriculture. Her position 
on the western extremity of Europe would enable her to 
intercept the trade of the new world from all other nations— 
the merchandise of London, of Bristol, and of Liverpool skirt 
her shores before it arrives at its own destination ; and some 



276 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

of the finest harbors in the world invite the inhabitants of 
this gifted island to accept the trade of India and form the 
emporium of Europe. 

The internal and natural advantages of Ireland are great 
and inexhaustible. Rich mines are found in almost every 
quarter of the island; gold is discovered in the beds of 
streams, and washed from the sands of rivulets— the moun- 
tains are generally arable to their summits— the valleys 
exceed in fertility the most prolific soils of England— the 
rivulets, which flow along the declivities, adapt the country 
most peculiarly to the improvement of irrigation; and the 
bogs and mosses of Ireland, utterly unlike the fens and 
marshes of England, emit no damp or noxious exhalations, 
and give a plentiful and cheering fuel to the surrounding 
peasantry; or, when reclaimed, become the most luxurious 
pastures. 

The population of Ireland is great and progressive. Above 
five millions of a brave and hearty race of men are seen 
scattered through the fields, or swarming in the villages— a 
vast redundancy of grain, and innumerable flocks and herds 
should furnish to them not only the source of trade, but every 
means of comfort. 

Dublin, the second city of the British empire, though it 
yields in extent, yields not in architectural beauties to the 
metropolis of England. For some years previous to the 
Union its progress was excessive— the locality of the parlia- 
ment—the constant residence of the nobility and commons— 
the magnificent establishments of the vice-regal court— the 
indefatigable hospitality of the people— and the increasing 
commerce of the port, altogether gave a brilliant prosperity 
to that splendid and luxurious capital. 

Ireland, possessing the strongest features of a powerful 
state, though laboring under every disadvantage which a 
restricted commerce and a jealous ally could inflict upon her 
prosperity, might still have regarded with contempt the 
comparatively unequal resources and inferior powers of half 
the monarchies of Europe. Her insular situation— her great 
fertility— the character of her people— the amount of her 
revenues— and the extent of her population, gave her a de- 
cided superiority over other nations and rendered her crown, 
if accompanied by her affections, not only a brilliant but a 
most substantial ornament to the British empire. 



In the Days of Grattan 277 

However, though gifted and enriched by the hand of 
Nature, the fomented dissensions of her own natives had 
Wedded Ireland to poverty and adapted her to subjugation— 
her innate capacities lay dormant and inactive— her dearest 
interests were forgotten by herself, or resisted by her ally; 
and the gifts and bounties of a favoring Providence, though 
lavished, were lost on a divided people. 

By the paralyzing system thus adopted towards Ireland, 
she was at length reduced to the lowest ebb— her poverty and 
distresses, almost at their extent, were advancing fast to their 
final consummation— her commerce had almost ceased— her 
manufactures extinguished— her constitution withdrawn— the 
people desponding — while public and individual bankruptcy 
finished a picture of the deepest misery; and the year 1799 
found Ireland almost everything but what such a country and 
such a people ought to have been. 

This lamentable state of the Irish nation was not the 
result of any one distinct cause : a combination of depressing 
circumstances united to bear down every progressive effort 
of that injured people. Immured in a labyrinth of difficulties 
and embarrassments, no clew was found to lead them through 
the mazes of their prison ; and, helpless and desponding, they 
sunk into a doze of torpid inactivity, while their humiliated 
and ineffectual parliaments, restrained by foreign and arbi- 
trary laws, subjected to the dictation of the British Council, 
and obstructed in the performance of its constitutional func- 
tions, retained scarcely the shadow of an independent legis- 
lature. 

A statute of Henry the Seventh of England, framed by his 
Attorney-General, Sir Edward Poyning, restrained the Irish 
Parliament from originating any law whatever, either in the 
Lords or Commons. Before any statute could be finally dis- 
cussed, it was previously to be submitted to the Lord Lieu- 
tenant of Ireland and his Privy Council, for their considera- 
tion, who might at their pleasure reject it, or transmit it to 
England. If transmitted to England, the British Attorney 
General and Privy Council were invested with a power either 
to suppress it altogether or model it at their own will, and 
then return it to Ireland with permission to the Irish Parlia- 
ment to pass it into a law, but without any alteration, though 
it frequently returned from England so changed as to retain 
hardly a trace of its original features, or a point of its original 
object. 



278 Ireland's Crown or Thorns and Roses 

Yet, as if this arbitrary law were insufficient to secure 
Great Britain from the effect of those rival advantages which 
Ireland might in process of time eventually acquire, and as 
if that counteracting power, with which England had invested 
herself by the law of Poyning, were unequal to the task of 
effectually suppressing all rivalship of the Irish people, and 
independence of the Irish Parliament; it was thought advis- 
able by Great Britain to usurp a positive right to legislate 
for Ireland, without her own consent or the interference of 
her Parliament ; and a law was accordingly enacted at West- 
minster, in the sixth year of the reign of George the First, 
by one sweeping clause of which England assumed a despotic 
IDOwer, and declared her inherent right to bind Ireland by 
every British statute, in which she should be expressly desig- 
nated; and thus, by the authority of the British Council on 
the one hand, and the positive right assumed by the British 
Parliament upon the other, Ireland retained no more the 
attributes of an independent nation than a monarch, attended 
in a dungeon with all the state and trappings of royalty, and 
bound hand and foot in golden shackles, could be justly styled 
an independent potentate. 

The effect of this tyrannical and ruinous system fell most 
heavily on the trade of Ireland. Its influence was experienced 
not merely by any particular " branch of commerce, but in 
every stage of manufacture, of arts, of trade, and of agri- 
culture. In every struggle of the Irish Parliament to promote 
the commerce or the manufactures of their country, the Brit- 
ish monopolizers were perpetually victorious; and even the 
speculative jealousy of a manufacturing village of Great 
Britain was of sufficient weight to negative any measure, 
however beneficial to the general prosperity of the sister 
country. 

The same jealousy and the same system which operated so 
fatally against the advancement of her commerce operated 
as strongly against the improvement of her constitution. 
England was well aware that the acquirement of an independ- 
ent Parliament would be the sure forerunner of commercial 
liberty; and possessed of the means to counteract these ob- 
jects, she seemed determined never to relax the strength of 
that power, by the despotic exercise of which Ireland had been 
so long continued in a state of thraldom. 

But exclusive of these slavish restraints (the necessary 



In the Days of Grattan 279 

consequence of a dependent legislature) another system, not 
less adverse to the general prosperity of the whole island 
than repugnant to the principle of natural justice and of 
sound policy, had been long acted upon with every severity 
that bigotry could suggest, or intolerance could dictate. 

The penal statutes, under the tyrannical pressure of which 
the Catholics had so long and so grievously labored, though 
in some instances softened down, still bore heavily upon four- 
fifths of the Irish population— a code which would have dis- 
honored even the sanguinary pen of Drace, had inflicted every 
pain and penalty, every restriction and oppression under 
which a people could linger out a miserable existence. By 
these statutes the exercise of religion had been held a crime, 
the education of children a high misdemeanor — the son was 
encouraged to betray his father— the child rewarded for the 
ruin of his parent— the house of God declared a public 
nuisance — the officiating pastor proclaimed an outlaw — the 
acquirement of property absolutely prohibited — the exercise 
of trades restrained— plunder legalized in courts of law, and 
breach of trust rewarded in courts of equity— the Irish Cath- 
olic excluded from the possession of any office or occupation 
in the state, the law, the army, the navy, the municipal bodies, 
and the chartered corporations— and the mild doctrines of the 
Christian faith perverted, even in the pulpit, to the worst 
purposes of religious persecution. 

Yet under this galling yoke the Irish for near eighty years 
remained tranquil and submissive. The ignorance, into which 
poverty and wretchedness had plunged that people, prevented 
them from perceiving the whole extent of the oppression; 
and these penal laws, while they operated as an insuperable 
bar to the advancement of the Catholic, deeply affected the 
general interest of the Protestant. The impoverished tenant 
—the needy landlord— the unenterprising merchant— the idle 
artisan could all trace the origin of their wants to the enact- 
ment of these statutes. Profession was not permitted to 
engage the mind of youth, or education to cultivate his under- 
standing. Dissolute habits, the certain result of idleness and 
illiterateness, were consequently making rapid progress in 
almost every class of society. The gentry were not exempt 
from the habits of the peasant ; the spirit of industry took her 
flight altogether from the island ; and, as the loss of commerce 
and constitution had no counteracting advantages, everything 



280 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

combined to reduce Ireland to a state of the most general and 
unqualified depression. 

It was about this period, when the short-sighted policy of 
the British Government had by its own arbitrary proceedings 
planted the seeds of that political philosophy, afterwards so 
fatal to the most powerful monarchies of Europe, that Ireland 
began to feel herself affected by the struggles of America. 
The spirit of independence had crossed the Atlantic, and the 
Irish people, awakened from a trance, beheld with anxiety 
the contest in which they now began to feel an interest. They 
regarded with admiration the exertions of a colony combating 
for the first principles of civil liberty, and giving to the world 
an instructive lesson of fortitude and perseverance. 

Spread over a vast expanse of region, America, without 
wealth— without resources— without population— without 
fortresses— without allies— had everything to contend with, 
and everything to conquer. But freedom was her call, and as 
if she had been designated by Providence for an example to 
the universe of what even powerless states can achieve by 
enthusiasm and unanimity, her strength increased with her 
deprivations, and the firmness of one great and good man 
converted the feebleness of a colony into the power of an 
empire. The defeats of Washington augmented his armies— 
his wants and necessities called forth his intellect— while his 
wisdom, firmness, and moderation procured him powerful 
friends, and secured him ultimate victory. The strength of 
Great Britain at length yielded to the vigor of his mind, and 
the unflinching fortitude of his people ; and Lord Cornwallis 
(the chosen instrument for oppressing heroic nations), by his 
defeat and his captivity, established the independence of 
America. The arrogance of England bowed its proud head 
to the shrine of liberty, and her favorite general led back 
the relics of his conquered army to commemorate in the 
mother country the impotence of her power and emancipation 
of her colonies. 

While these great events were gradually proceeding to- 
wards their final completion, Ireland became every day a more 
anxious spectator of the arduous conflict— every incident in 
America began to communicate a sympathetic impulse to the 
Irish people— the moment was critical— the nation became 
enlightened— a patriotic ardor took possession of her whole 
frame, and before she had well considered the object of her 



In the Days of Grattan 281 

solicitude the spark of constitutional liberty had found its 
way into her bosom. 

The disposition of Ireland to avail herself of the circum- 
stances of those times, so favorable to the attainment of her 
rights, now openly avowed itself. Her determination to claim 
her constitution from the British Government became une- 
quivocal, and she began to assume the attitude and language 
of a nation "entitled to independence." The sound of arms 
and the voice of freedom echoed from every quarter of the 
island, distinctions were forgotten, or disregarded; every 
rank, every religion alike caught the general feeling, but firm- 
ness and discretion characterized her proceedings— she grad- 
ually arose from torpor and obscurity— her native spirit drew 
aside the curtain that had so long concealed her from the 
world and exhibited an armed and animated people, claiming 
their natural rights and demanding their constitutional 
liberty. 

When the dawn of political liberty begins to diffuse itself 
over a nation great and gifted characters suddenly spring up 
from amongst the people— animated by new subjects, their 
various talents and principles become developed— they inter- 
weave themselves with the events of their country, become 
inseparable from its misfortunes, or identified with its pros- 
perity. 

Ireland, at this era, possessed many men of superior 
capabilities— some distinguished by their pure attachment to 
constitutional liberty— others by their slavish deference to 
ruling powers and patronizing authorities. Among those 
whom the spirit of these times called forth to public notice was 
seen one of the most bold and energetic leaders of modern 
days, an anticipated knowledge of whose marked and restless 
character is a necessary preface to a recital of Irish recur- 
rences, in which the effects of his passions will be everywhere 
traced, and the mischievous errors of his judgment be per- 
ceived and lamented. 

This person was John Fitzgibbon, afterwards Earl of 
Clare-Attorney General arid Lord High Chancellor of Ire- 
land. His ascertained pedigree was short, though his name 
bespoke an early respectability. His grandfather was obscure 
-his father, intended for the profession of a Catholic pastor, 
but possessing a mind superior to the habits of monkish 
seclusion, procured himself to be called to the Irish bar, where 



282 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

his talents raised him to the highest estimation and finally 
established him in fame and fortune. 

John Fitzgibbon, the second son of this man, was called 
to the bar in 1772. Naturally dissipated, he for some time 
attended but little to the duties of his profession; but on 
the death of his elder brother and his father he found him- 
self in possession of all those advantages which led him rap- 
idly forward to the extremity of his objects. Considerable 
fortune— professional talents— extensive connections and 
undismayed confidence elevated him to those stations on 
which he afterwards appeared so conspicuously seated ; while 
the historic eye, as it follows his career, perceives him lightly 
bounding over every obstacle which checked his course to that 
goal where all the trophies and thorns of power were col- 
lected for his reception. 

In the Earl of Clare we find a man eminently gifted with 
talents adapted either for a blessing or a curse to the nation 
he inhabited ; but early enveloped in high and dazzling author- 
ity, he lost his way and, considering his power as a victory, 
he ruled his country as a conquest; indiscriminate in his 
friendships— and implacable in his animosities— he carried to 
the grave all the passions of his childhood. 

He hated powerful talents, because he feared them; and 
trampled on modest merit, because it was incapable of resist- 
ance. Authoritative and peremptory in his address; com- 
manding, able, and arrogant in his language, a daring con- 
tempt for public opinion was the fatal principle which 
misguided his conduct; and Ireland became divided between 
the friends of his patronage— the slaves of his power— and 
the enemies of his tyranny. 

His character had no medium, his manners no mediocrity 
—the example of his extremes was adopted by his intimates, 
and excited in those who knew him feelings either of warm 
attachment or of riveted aversion. 

While he held the seals in Ireland he united a vigorous 
capacity with the most striking errors; as a judge, he col- 
lected facts with a rapid precision, and decided on them with 
a prompt asperity; but he hated precedent, and despised the 
highest judicial authorities, because they were not his own. 

As a politician and a statesman, the character of Lord 
Clare is too well known, and its effects too generally expe- 
rienced to be mistaken or misrepresented— the era of his 



In the Days of Grattan 283 

reign was the downfall of his country— his councils acceler- 
ated what his policy might have suppressed, and have marked 
the annals of Ireland with stains and miseries unequalled and 
indelible. 

In council— rapid, peremptory, and overbearing— he re- 
garded promptness of execution rather than discretion of 
arrangement, and piqued himself more on expertness of 
thought than sobriety of judgment. Through all the calami- 
ties of Ireland the mild voice of conciliation never escaped 
his lips ; and when the torrent of civil war had subsided in his 
country he held out no olive to show that the deluge had 
receded. Acting upon a conviction that his power was but 
coexistent with the order of public establishments, and the 
tenure of his office limited to the continuance of administra- 
tion, he supported both with less prudence and more despera- 
tion than sound policy or an enlightened mind should permit 
or dictate; his extravagant doctrines of religious intolerance 
created the most mischievous pretexts for his intemperance 
in upholding them ; and, under color of defending the princi- 
ples of one revolution, he had nearly plunged the nation into 
all the miseries of another. 

His political conduct has been unaccounted uniform, but 
in detail it will be found to have been miserably inconsistent. 
In 1781 he took up arms to obtain a declaration of Irish 
independence ; in 1800 he recommended the introduction of a 
military force to assist in its extinguishment; he proclaimed 
Ireland a free nation in 1783, and argued that it should be a 
province in 1799; in 1782 he called the acts of the British 
Legislature towards Ireland '*a daring usurpation on the 
rights of a free people/' and in 1800 he transferred Ireland to 
the usurper. On all occasions his ambition as despotically 
governed his politics as his reason invariably sunk before his 
prejudice. 

Though he intrinsically hated a Legislative Union, his lust 
for power induced him to support it; the preservation of 
office overcame the impulse of conviction, and he strenuously 
supported that measure, after having openly avowed himself 
its enemy ; its completion, however, blasted his hopes and has- 
tened his dissolution. The restlessness of his habit, and the 
obtrusiveness of his disposition became insupportably embar- 
rassing to the British cabinet— the danger of his talents as a 
minister, and the inadequacy of his judgment as a statesman 



284 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

had been proved in Ireland; he had been a useful instrument 
in that country, but the same line of services which he per- 
formed in Ireland would have been ruinous to Great Britain, 
and Lord Clare was no longer consulted. 

The union at length effected through his friends what 
Ireland could never accomplish through his enemies— his total 
overthrow. Unaccustomed to control, and unable to submit, 
he returned to his country, weary, drooping, and disap- 
pointed; regretting what he had done, yet miserable that he 
could do no more. His importance had expired with the Irish 
Parliament, his patronage ceased to supply food for his ambi- 
tion, the mind and the body became too sympathetic for exist- 
ence and he sunk into the grave, a conspicuous example of 
human talent and human frailty. 

In his person he was about the middle size, slight, and not 
graceful, his eyes, large, dark, and penetrating, betrayed some 
of the boldest traits of his uncommon character; his coun- 
tenance, though expressive and manly, yet discovered noth- 
ing which could deceive the physiognomist into an opinion of 
his magnanimity, or call forth a eulogium on his virtues. 

During twenty momentous and eventful years the life of 
Lord Clare is in fact the history of Ireland— as in romance 
some puissant and doughty chieftain appears prominent in 
every feat of chivalry— the champion in every strife— the hero 
of every encounter, and, after a life of toil and of battle, falls 
surrounded by a host of foes, a victim to his own ambition 
and temerity. 

Thus Earl Clare throughout those eventful periods will 
be seen bold, active and desperate, engaging fiercely in every 
important conflict of the Irish nation and at length, after 
having sacrificed his country to his passions and his ambi- 
tion, endeavoring to atone for his errors by sacrificing him- 
self. 



CHAPTER IT. 

THE IRISH PARLIAMENT PREVIOUS TO 1779— CHARACTER OF THE 
IRISH PEASANT— THE PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC CLERGY 
COMPARED. 

The habits of commerce and the pursuits of avarice had 
not, at this period, absorbed the spirit or contracted the intel- 
lect of the Irish people. That vigorous, comprehensive, and 
pathetic eloquence so peculiar to Ireland, which grasped at 
once the reason and the passions, still retained its ascendancy 
at the bar, and its pre-eminence in the Senate ; and the Com- 
mons ' House of Parliament, about the period of Lord Clare's 
first introduction into public notice, contained as much char- 
acter, as much eloquence, and as much sincerity as any popular 
assembly since the most brilliant era of the Roman republic. 

It might be reasonable to infer that a nation so long re- 
tained in the trammels of dependence, so habituated through 
successive generations, to control and to subjection would 
have lost much of its natural energy, and more of its national 
feeling. But, though the Irish Parliament, previous to 1799, 
in general manifested strong indications of a declining and 
a subservient body, yet, even after centuries of depression, 
when roused by the sting of accumulating usurpation, its 
latent spirit occasionally burst forth and should have con- 
vinced the British Government that though the flame of lib- 
erty may be smothered the spark is unextinguishable. 

Although, by the operation of Poyning's Law, the parlia- 
mentary discussions were generally restricted to local sub- 
jects and domestic arrangements, yet constitutional questions 
of a vital tendency incidentally occurred; and the exercise 
of controlling powers, assumed by the British cabinet over 
the concerns of Ireland often afforded matter of serious con- 
troversy between the viceroy and the nation and had, in some 
instances, been resisted by the parliament with a warmth and 
a pertinacity which foretold a certainty of more important 
contests. 

These struggles, however, although frequent were fruit- 
less. The country was not yet ripe for independence, consti- 
tutional freedom had been so long obsolete that even its first 

285 



286 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

principles were nearly forgotten, and the people were again 
to learn the rudiments before they could speak the language 
of liberty. But the fortitude, the wisdom, and the perse- 
verance of the Anglo-American colonies, the feebleness, the 
impolicy, and the division of Great Britain soon taught Ire- 
land the importance of the crisis ; and by a firmness, a mod- 
eration, and a unanimity unparalleled in the annals of 
revolution, the Irish Volunteers acquired for their country a 
civic crown which nothing but the insanity of rebellion and 
the artifices and frauds of Union could ever have torn from 
the brow of the Irish people. 

Absentees who have ever been and ever will remain an 
obstacle to the substantial prosperity of Ireland exerted them- 
selves more particularly at this period, in giving a strenuous 
and weighty opposition to every measure of innovation, they 
knew their Irish demesnes only by name and by income, they 
felt no interest but for their rents, and no patriotism but for 
the territory, alarmed at any legislative measure originating 
in Ireland. They showed themselves equally ignorant and 
regardless of her constitution, and ever proved themselves 
the steady adherents of the Minister for the time being ; their 
proxies in the Lords, and their influence in the Commons were 
to be transferred to him on a card or in a letter, and on 
every division in both houses almost invariably formed a 
phalanx against the true and genuine interest of the country. 

However zealous and determined the incipient exertions of 
the Irish nation might have been, they would probably have 
been crushed and extinguished had not a class of men, pos- 
sessing the first talents in the senate and the highest con- 
fidence of the country, stepped boldly forward to support the 
people. In those days the Irish bar, a body equally formidable 
to the Government by their character and their capacity, too 
independent to be restrained, and too proud to be corrupted, 
comprised many sons of the resident noblemen and commoners 
of Ireland. The legal science was at that time considered as 
part of an Irish gentleman's education; the practice was then 
not a trade, but a profession. Eloquence was cultivated by 
its votaries, as a preparation for the higher duties of the 
senate, and as almost every peer and every commoner had 
a relative enrolled among their number, so they had an 
interest in the conduct and honor of that department of 
society. The influence, therefore, of the bar as a body, in- 



In the Days of Grattan 287 

creased by the general respect for the connections and culti- 
vated talents of its members, gave them an ascendancy both 
in and out of Parliament which could scarcely be counter- 
acted, and on certain trying occasions the conduct of some of 
the law-officers afforded experimental proof that even they 
considered their offices as no longer tenable with advantage 
to the King, if the Minister should attempt to use them as 
instruments against the people. 

The rank and station of the law-officers of Ireland in those 
days were peculiarly dignified, and conveyed an impression 
of importance which the modern degeneracy of talent and 
relaxation of wholesome forms and of distinctions has alto- 
gether done away with. The office of Prime Sergeant, then 
the first law-officer of Ireland, was filled at this period by 
one of the most amiable and eloquent men that ever appeared 
on the stage of politics— Walter Hussey Burgh, whose con- 
duct in a subsequent transaction rendered him justly cele- 
brated and illustrious. This gentleman was then representa- 
tive for Dublin University, in which office he and M. 
Fitzgibbon were colleagues— men in whose public characters 
scarcely a trait of similarity can be discovered. Mild, mod- 
erate, and patriotic, Mr. Burgh was proud without arrogance, 
and dignified without effort; equally attentive to public con- 
cerns and careless of his own, he had neither avarice to 
acquire wealth nor parsimony to hoard it; liberal, even to 
profusion— friendly to a fault— and disinterested to a weak- 
ness—he was honest without affluence, and ambitious without 
corruption ; his eloquence was of the highest order— figurative, 
splendid, and convincing; at the bar, in the Parliament, and 
among the people he was equally admired and universally 
respected. 

But when we compare Mr. Burgh with the then Attorney 
General of Ireland, who had been selected by Lord Townsend 
to bear down, if possible, the spirit of the country, the contrast 
may give a strong view of that policy which falling ministers 
frequently and perhaps judiciously adopt, of endeavoring, 
if practicable, to enlist and seat upon their benches some 
popular and elevated personage of opposition who, by his 
character, may give strength to the party which surrounds 
him or, at least, may forever prostrate his own reputation 
by the unpopularity of the connection. 

Mr. John Scott, then Attorney General and afterwards 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

created Earl of Clonmel and Chief Justice of Ireland, ex- 
hibited the most striking contrast to the character of the 
Prime Sergeant. Sprung from the humbler order of society, 
he adventured upon the world without any advantage save the 
strength of his intellect and the versatility of his talents. He 
held his head high, his boldness was his first introduction, 
his policy his ultimate preferment. Courageous, humorous, 
artificial, he knew the world well, and he profited by that 
knowledge; he cultivated the powerful, he bullied the timid, 
he fought the brave, he flattered the vain, he duped the 
credulous, and he amused the convivial. Half liked, half 
reprobated, he was too high to be despised, and too low to 
be respected. His language was coarse and his principles 
arbitrary, but his passions were his slaves, and his cunning 
was his instrument. He recollected favors received in his 
obscurity, and in some instances had gratitude to requite the 
obligation; but his avarice and his ostentation contended for 
the ascendancy ; their strife was perpetual, and their victories 
alternate. In public and in private he was the same char- 
acter; and, though a most fortunate man and a successful 
courtier, he had scarcely a sincere friend or a disinterested 
adherent. 

This marked contrariety in character and disposition, 
which distinguished those chief law-officers of government, 
was equally discernible in almost every other department; 
the virtues and the talents of Grattan, of Flood, of Yelverton, 
of Daly, found their contrasts on the same benches ; and these 
two distinguished characters are thus brought forward by 
anticipation to show in the strongest point of view how pow- 
erful and insinuating the public feeling of that day must have 
been, that could finally draw together in one common cause 
personages so opposite and so adverse on almost every 
political object and in every national principle. 

The crisis, however, now approached when Ireland was 
for a moment to rear her head among imperial nations; 
strange and unforeseen events began to crowd the annals of 
the world— the established axioms of general polity began to 
lose their weight among nations; and governments, widely 
wandering from the fundamental principles of their own con- 
stitutions, seemed carelessly traveling the road to anarchy 
and revolution. 

The rival powers of England and of France— ever jealous. 



In the Days of Grattan 289 

ever insincere— concluding deceptive negotiations by- 
fallacious treaties— doubtful of each other's honor, and 
dreading each other's prowess— had long stood cautiously at 
bay— each watching for an unguarded open to give a mortal 
wound to her adversary— yet each dreading the consequences 
of an unsuccessful effort. 

However, the perseverance and successes of America com- 
municated a stimulating impulse to the councils of the French 
King; and that ill-fated monarch, urged on to his destiny, 
determined to strike a deadly blow at the pride and the com- 
merce of England, by giving an effectual aid to her revolted 
colonies. 

The question soon came to a speedy issue ; an undecisive 
engagement with the French fleet in the Channel alarmed 
and irritated England; every prospect of accommodation 
vanished, and a declaration of war was issued by the French 
Government, with a pompous manifesto proclaiming the 
wanton injuries they had sustained from Great Britain. 

Plunged into destructive warfare, each nation used their 
utmost efforts to accomplish their respective purposes. 
France determined to establish the independence of America ; 
while England sought to reduce her colonies to the most 
decisive slavery. A transposition of national principles 
seemed to have been adopted by the Governments of both 
countries— despotic France combating to establish the rights 
of civil liberty, and England exerting all her energies to 
enforce a system of tyrannic government— the one marshall- 
ing the slaves of her arbitrary power to battle in the cause 
of pure democracy; the other rallying round an English 
standard the hired mercenaries of German avarice to sup- 
press the principles of British freedom, and both Governments 
soliciting the aid of sanguinary savages to aggravate the 
horrors of a Christian war by the scalping-knife and the 
tomahawk of heathen murderers. 

Europe beheld with amazement a combat so unnatural and 
disgusting, but it would have required a prophetic spirit to 
have then foretold that the French throne would be event- 
ually overturned by the principles of those new allies, and 
would by the mighty shock of its fall shake even the founda- 
tions of the British constitution, though the total prostration 
of the one and the ministerial inroads upon the other would 
since have fully justified the hazard of that prediction, 



290 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Amidst the confusion incident to those great events Ire- 
land yet remained unheeded and unthought of ; her miseries 
and her oppressions had hardly engaged the consideration of 
the British minister. Meanwhile the Irish people, with a 
dignified anxiety, contemplated the probable termination of 
a contest by the result of which their own destiny must be 
determined. The subjugation of America might confirm the 
dependence of Ireland; and she was soon convinced that she 
could obtain her own constitutional rights from Great Britain 
only by the complete success and triumph of her colony. 

Awaiting, therefore, the decrees of Providence, Ireland 
steadily surveyed the distant prospect of great and rival 
empires wantonly lavishing the blood and treasures of their . 
people in a contest fundamentally repugnant to their estab- 
lished principles; but cautious, moderate, and firm in her 
conduct, though she wisely determined to avail herself of the 
crisis to promote the establishment of her independence, she 
fed the flame of liberty, she kindled not the blaze of licentious- 
ness ; while America fought to obtain a separation from Eng- 
land, Ireland took up arms only to obtain a just participation 
of her constitution. 

To embarrass the offensive measures of England, and 
make a formidable diversion in favor of America, France 
manifested an intention of invading Ireland. In this alarm- 
ing emergency Great Britain, from the dispersions of her 
military force, scattered into many distant nations of the 
world, and so numerously employed on the continent of 
America, found it impossible to afford a body of regular 
troops sufficient to protect Ireland in case of such invasion. 
Here let us for a moment pause and dispassionately reflect 
upon the situation of Great Britain and the conduct of Ire- 
land at this most trying moment ; let us survey the increasing 
imbecility of the one and the rising enemies of the other ; and 
we must do justice to the moderation and generosity of a 
people whose long and grievous oppressions, if they could not 
have justified, would at least have palliated, a very different 
proceeding. 

The state of England during this war became every day 
more difficult and distressing. A discontented people and an 
unpopular ministry, an empty treasury and a grievous taxa- 
tion, a continental war and a colonial rebellion together 
formed an accumulation of embarrassment such as Great 



In the Days of Grattan 291 

Britain had never before experienced. Her forces in America 
were captured or defeated; her fleets had not yet attained 
that irresistible superiority which has since proved the only 
protection of the British Islands. Ireland, without money, 
militia, or standing army— without ordnance or fortifications 
—almost abandoned by England— had to depend solely on the 
spirit and resources of her own natives ; and this critical state 
of Ireland, which the misconduct of Great Britain herself 
had occasioned, gave the first rise to those celebrated associa- 
tions, the Irish Volunteers, the immediate means of obtaining 
Irish independence. 

Many inducements prevailed to fill the ranks of these 
associations. The warlike propensities of the Irish people, 
so long restrained, and personal attachment to their chiefs 
and leaders were with them the first excitements; but the 
blending of ranks, and more intimate connection of the people, 
which was the immediate consequence of a general military 
system, quickly effected an extensive and marked revolution 
in the minds and manners of the entire nation ; an important 
and extraordinary change, of which the gradations became 
every day more conspicuously discernible. The primary 
stimulus of the Irish farmer was only that which he felt in 
common with every other animated being — the desire of self- 
preservation. He associated against invasion because he 
heard that it would be his ruin, but his intercourse with the 
higher ranks opened the road to better information. Thus 
he soon learned that the Irish people were deprived of politi- 
cal rights, and that his country had endured political injuries ; 
his ideas became enlarged, and quickly embraced more nu- 
merous and prouder objects; he began for the first time to 
know his own importance to the state; and, as knowledge 
advanced, the principles of constitutional independence were 
better understood, and more sedulously cultivated. The Irish 
peasant now assumed a different rank and a higher character ; 
familiarized with arms, and more intimate with his superiors, 
he every day felt his love of liberty increased; the spirit at 
length became generally enthusiastic, and in less time than 
could have been supposed from the commencement of these 
associations, the whole surface of the island was soon covered 
with a self-raised host of patriot soldiers. 

In the formation of those armed associations, the long- 
established distinctions between the Protestant and the Cath- 
olic could not be altogether forgotten. Many of the penal 



292 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

laws were still in full force; Catholics were prohibited by 
statute from bearing arms in Ireland; and, from the rooted 
prejudices against allowing to that body any civil or military 
power whatever, strong objections arose to their admission 
into those armed bodies. The Catholics, however, neither took 
offence nor even showed any jealousy at this want of con- 
fidence ; on the contrary, with their money and their exhorta- 
tions, they zealously assisted in forwarding those very 
associations into which they themselves had not admission. 
Their calmness and their patriotism gained them many 
friends, and a relaxation of intolerance appeared rapidly to 
be gaining ground, but it was not until the volunteers had 
assumed a deliberative capacity, and met as armed citizens 
to discuss political questions, that the necessity of uniting 
the whole population of the country in the cause of inde- 
pendence became distinctly obvious. Those who foresaw that 
a general association of the Irish people was essential to the 
attainment of their constitutional objects, endeavored to 
reconcile schisms of sectarian jealousy by calm and rational 
observations; they argued that religious feuds had, in all 
countries, proved subversive of national prosperity, but to 
none more decidedly fatal than to modern Ireland— that the 
true interests of the Catholic and the Protestant were sub- 
stantially the same, they breathed the same air, tilled the 
same soil, and had equal rights and claims to the participation 
of liberty, that they were endowed by nature with equal 
powers and faculties, intellectual and corporeal, and that they 
worshipped the same God, the truths and doctrines of re- 
vealed religion equally constituting the basis of their social 
duties, and the foundation of their religious tenets, and the 
principles of virtue and morality being equally inculcated 
from their pulpits and propagated at their altars. ^'Why, 
then," they asked, '^ should a few theological subtilties, whose 
mysterious uncertainties lay far beyond the reach of human 
determination, and were altogether unnecessary to the ar- 
rangements of municipal institution, why should they distract 
a nation which to become free should become unanimous? 
Why should they excite controversies so strongly tainted with 
fanatic frenzy that no personal insult or aggravated injury, 
no breach of moral tie or of honorable contract could rouse 
rancor more acrimonious or animosity more unrelenting than 
that which originated solely from theoretic distinctions upon 



In the Days of Grattan 293 

inexplicable subjects? as if Irishmen were bound to promote 
the happiness of their neighbors in a future state by destroy- 
ing their comforts and disturbing their tranquillity in the 
present. ' ' 

It was also observed that, although this strange insanity 
might have existed in remote and dark ages when the disciples 
of every new sect proclaimed themselves the meritorious mur- 
derers of the old, when Christian chiefs assailed the pagan 
power only to make new proselytes to their own errors and 
victims to their own intolerance, and though in such unhappy 
times Ireland might have partaken of the general madness, 
and without peculiar disgrace have participated in the infirm- 
ities of Europe, yet, when the progress of civilization had 
opened the eyes and enlarged the understanding of the people ; 
when the voice of rational liberty loudly called for the unani- 
mous exertion of every sect in the common cause of inde- 
pendence, it was full time to discard these destructive preju- 
dices which had so long and so effectually restrained the 
rights and retarded the prosperity of the Irish nation. 

Nor can any historic incident more clearly illustrate the 
inestimable value of unanimity to an oppressed people than a 
contrasted exhibition of the independent spirit displayed by 
the Catholics in 1782, when they acquired a constitution by 
their firmness, and of their degenerate conduct in 1800 when 
they lost that constitution through their divisions and their 
servility. 

Before the progress of the Irish Volunteers is particularly 
detailed, or the ultimate objects which they had in view, the 
genuine character of the people among whom so extraordinary 
an association originated should be clearly developed and 
perfectly understood ; as many important events in Irish his- 
tory would appear obscure and unaccountable without a due 
knowledge of the national character— a character ever mis- 
conceived or misrepresented in England, because the persons 
by whom the pictures were drawn, generally either too 
ignorant or too interested to draw it with fidelity, and so 
little of intimate intercourse had subsisted between the two 
countries that the people of England were in general as 
unacquainted with the real dispositions and habits of the Irish 
as with those of any nation upon the European continent. 

It was therefore impossible that England should judi- 
ciously govern a people with whose feelings she was wont to 



294 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

trifle, and with whose natural character she was so imper- 
fectly acquainted, nor can she ever effectually acquire that 
knowledge until she is convinced that Ireland though formed 
by nature for her sister was never intended for her servant, 
and that, within her own bosom, she possesses powers, treas- 
ures, and resources yet unexplored by England, but which, if 
kindly cultivated and liberally encouraged, would contribute 
more strength and benefit to both than Great Britain has ever 
heretofore derived, or ever yet merited from the connection. 

To attain a just conception of the remote causes of two 
great and repugnant revolutions in Ireland within eighteen 
years we must view the ranks of which society is there com- 
posed, as well as their proportions and their influence upon 
each other ; and, in the peculiarities and ardency of that char- 
acter, will be clearly discovered the true sources of many 
extraordinary events; it will evidently appear that, to the 
foibles of the unfortunate nation, worked upon by art, and 
imposed upon by policy, and not to native crimes or peculiar 
views, are attributable the frequency of her miseries and the 
consummation of her misfortune. 

The Irish people have been as little known as they have 
been grossly defamed to the rest of Europe. 

The lengths to which English writers have proceeded in 
pursuit of this object would surpass all belief were not the 
facts proved by histories written under the immediate eye and 
sanction of Irish Governments; histories replete with false- 
hood which, combined with the still more mischievous mis- 
representations of modern writers, form altogether a mass 
of the most cruel calumnies that ever weighed down the 
character of a meritorious people. 

This system, however, was not without its meaning. From 
the reign of Elizabeth the policy of England has been to keep 
Ireland in a state of internal division. Perfect unanimity 
among her inhabitants has been considered as likely to give 
her a population and a power incompatible with subjection, 
and there are not wanting natives of Ireland who, impressed 
with that erroneous idea, zealously plunge into the same 
doctrine as if they could best prove their loyalty to the King 
by vilifying their country. 

The Irish peasantry who necessarily composed the great 
body of the population combined in their character many of 
those singular and repugnant qualities which peculiarly 



In the Days of Grattan 295 

designate the people of different nations, and this remarkable 
contrariety of characteristic traits pervaded almost the whole 
current of their natural dispositions. Laborious, domestic, 
accustomed to wants in the midst of plenty they submit to 
hardships without repining, and bear the severest privations 
with stoic fortitude. The sharpest wit and the shrewdest 
subtilty, which abound in the character of the Irish peasant, 
generally lie concealed under the semblance of dullness or 
the appearance of simplicity; and his language, replete with 
the keenest humor, possesses an idiom of equivocation which 
never fails successfully to evade a direct answer to an un- 
welcome question. 

Inquisitive, artful, and penetrating, the Irish peasant 
learns mankind without extensive intercourse and has an 
instinctive knowledge of the world without mingling in its 
societies, and never, in any other instance, did there exist a 
people who could display so much address and so much talent 
in the ordinary transactions of life as the Irish peasantry. 

The Irish peasant has, at all periods, been peculiarly dis- 
tinguished for unbounded but indiscriminate hospitality 
which, though naturally devoted to the necessities of a friend, 
is never denied by him even to the distresses of an enemy. 
To be in want or misery is the best recommendation to his 
disinterested protection; his food, his bed, his raiment are 
equally the stranger's and his own; and the deeper the distress 
the more welcome is the sufferer to the peasant's cottage. 

His attachments to his kindred are of the strongest na- 
ture. The social duties are intimately blended with the 
natural disposition of an Irish peasant ; though covered with 
rags, oppressed with poverty, and perhaps with hunger, the 
finest specimens of generosity and heroism are to be found 
in his unequalled character. 

A martial spirit and a love of desultory warfare is indi- 
genious to the Irish people. Battle is their pastime; whole 
parishes and districts form themselves into parties, which 
they denominate factions ; they meet by appointment at their 
country fairs, there they quarrel without a cause, and fight 
without an object, and having indulged their propensity and 
bound up their wounds, they return satisfied to their own 
homes, generally without anger, and frequently in perfect 
friendship with each other. It is a melancholy reflection, that 
the successive Governments of Ireland should have been so 



296 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

long and obstinately blind to the real interest of the country, 
as to conceive it more expedient to attempt the fruitless task 
of suppressing the national spirit by legal severity and penal 
enactments than to adopt a system of national instruction 
and general industry which, by affording employment to their 
faculties, might give to the minds of the people a proper ten- 
dency, and a useful and peaceable direction. 

In general, the Irish are rather impetuously brave than 
steadily persevering; their onsets are furious, and their re- 
treats precipitate; but even death has for them no terrors, 
when they firmly believe that their cause is meritorious. 
Though exquisitely artful in the stratagems of warfare, yet, 
when actually in battle, their discretion vanishes before their 
impetuosity; and— the most gregarious people under heaven 
—they rush forward in a crowd with tumultuous ardor, and 
without foresight or reflection, whether they are advancing 
to destruction or to victory. 

An enthusiastic attachment to the place of their nativity 
is another striking trait of the Irish character, which neither 
time nor absence, prosperity nor adversity, can obliterate or 
diminish. Wherever an Irish peasant was born, there he 
wishes to die; and, however successful in acquiring wealth 
or rank in distant places, he returns with fond affection to 
renew his intercourse with the friends and companions of his 
youth and his obscurity. 

An innate spirit of insubordination to the laws has been 
strongly charged upon the Irish peasantry; but a people- 
to whom the punishment of crimes appears rather as a sacri- 
fice to revenge than a measure of prevention— can never have 
the same deference to the law, as those who are instructed in 
the principles of justice, and taught to recognize its equal- 
ity. It has, however, been uniformly admitted by every im- 
partial writer on the affairs of Ireland, that a spirit of strict 
justice has ever characterized the Irish peasant. Convince 
him, by plain and impartial reasoning, that he is wrong, and 
he withdraws from the judgment-seat, if not with cheerfulness, 
at least with submission; but, to make him respect the laws, 
he must be satisfied that they are impartial; and, with that 
conviction on his mind, the Irish peasant is as perfectly tract- 
able as the native of any other country in the world. 

An attachment to and a respect for females is another 
marked characteristic of the Irish peasant. The wife par- 



In the Days of Grattan- 297 

takes of all lier husband's vicissitudes; she shares his labor 
and his miseries, with constancy and with affection. At all 
the sports and meetings of the Irish peasantry, the women 
are always of the company ; they have a great influence ; and, 
in his smoky cottage, the Irish peasant, surrounded by his 
family, seems to forget all his privations. The natural cheer- 
fulness of his disposition banishes reflection; and he expe- 
riences a simple happiness, which even the highest ranks of 
society might justly envy. 

The middle class of gentry, interspersed throughout the 
country parts of the kingdom, possessed as much of the peas- 
ant character as accorded with more liberal minds and su- 
perior society. With less necessity for exertion than the 
peasant, and an equal inclination for the indulgence of indo- 
lence, their habits were altogether devoid of industry, and ad- 
verse to reflection— the morning chase and evening convivial- 
ity composed the diary of their lives, cherished the thought- 
lessness of their nature, and banished the cares and solici- 
tudes of foresight. They uniformly lived beyond their means, 
and aspired beyond their resources; pecuniary embarrass- 
ments only gave a new zest to the dissipation which created 
it ; and the gentry of Ireland at this period had more trouble 
and fewer cares than any gentry in the universe. 

These habits, however, while they contracted the distance 
between the lower and the superior order, had also the effect 
of promoting their mutual good-will and attachment to each 
other. The peasant looked up to and admired, in the country 
gentleman, those propensities which he himself possessed- 
actuated by a native sympathy of this position he loved old 
customs ; he liked to follow the track and example of his fore- 
fathers, and adhered to the fortunes of some ancient family, 
with a zealous sincerity ; and, in matter of party or of faction, 
he obeyed the orders of his landlord, and even anticipated his 
wishes, with cheerfulness and humility. 

The Irish country gentleman, without either the ties of 
blood or the weight of feudal authority, found himself sur- 
rounded by followers and adherents ever ready to adopt his 
cause, and risk their lives for his purposes, with as warm de- 
votion as those of the Scotish laird or the highland chieftain ; 
and this disposition, cultivated by family pride on the one 
side, and confirmed by immemorial habit on the other, greatly 
promoted the formation, the progress, and the zeal, of those 



298 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

armed associations whicli soon afterwards covered the face 
of the country and for a moment placed the name of Ireland 
on the very highest pinnacle of effective patriotism. 

It was the fashion of those days to cast upon the Irish 
gentry an imputation— it would be uncandid not to admit that 
there was some partial ground for it-^that they showed a dis- 
position to decide petty differences by the sword and placed 
too fastidious a construction on what they termed the ''point 
of honor." This practice certainly continued to prevail in 
many parts of Ireland, where time and general intercourse had 
not yet succeeded in extinguishing the romantic but honorable 
spirit of Milesian chivalry ; and, when we reflect on the natu- 
ral warlike disposition of the Irish people, that indigenous 
impetuosity and love of battle which so eminently dis- 
tinguished their aboriginal character, it is not surprising that 
hasty and unnecessary encounters should occasionally occur 
among a people perpetually actuated by the pride of ances- 
try and the theories of honor. But, even in these contests, 
the Irish gentleman forgave his adversary with as much read- 
iness as he fought him ; he respected the courage which aimed 
at his own life ; and the strongest friendships were sometimes 
formed, and frequently regenerated, on the field of battle. 
It is natural to suppose that this practice should have been 
exaggerated, by the English people, whom nature had endowed 
with less punctilious and much more discreet propensities. 

The cowardly crime of suicide, which prevailed and pre- 
vails in England, was scarcely ever known among the Irish. 
Circumstances, which would plunge an Englishman into a 
state of mortal despondency, would only rouse the energies 
of an Irishman to bound over his misfortunes— under every 
pressure, in every station, and in every climate, a lightness 
of heart, an openness of disposition, distinguishes him from 
the inhabitants of every other country. 

On the whole of the characters, the Irish gentry, though 
far from being faultless, had many noble qualities— generous, 
hospitable, friendly, brave— but careless, prodigal, and in- 
discreet—they possessed the materials of distinguished men 
with the propensities of obscure ones, and, by their openness 
and sincerity, too frequently became the dupes of artifice, and 
the victims of dissimulation. 

Among the highest orders of the Irish people, the dis- 
tinguishing features of national character had been long 



In the Days of Grattan 299 

wearing away, and becoming less prominent and remarkable. 
The manners of the nobility, in almost every European coun- 
try, verge to one common centre; by the similarity of their 
education and society, they acquire similar habits ; and a con- 
stant intercourse clothes their address and language, as it 
does their persons, in one peculiar garb— disguising the 
strong points, and concealing the native traits, of their origi- 
nal characters. 

The unprecedented expenses of the American War, which 
first familiarized the English people to empty their purses for 
the support of unnecessary and inglorious warfare (in which 
they have since become such extraordinary proficients), called 
every day for new resources ; and the minister conceived and 
executed the artful project of increasing his financial means 
and parliamentary power by erecting a banking and commer- 
cial interest on the site and ruins of the landed representa- 
tion. Money brokers began to institute a new order in the 
state, and to form, if not an integral part, at least a necessary 
appendage to every subsequent administration of Great 
Britain. 

Experience has proved the mischiefs of that fatal policy 
to the whole of the empire. 

Though the greater number of the Irish noblemen had 
been of remote creations, a few had not been long enough 
removed from the mass of the community to have acquired 
very high ideas of hereditary pride, or to have emblazoned 
the shield of very ancient or illustrious pedigrees. 

As a body, the Irish lords were not peculiarly prominent 
in the affairs of their country ; but they were dignified. Their 
debates (until the accession of Lord Clare) were calm and 
temperate ; and, though like the members of all other political 
assemblies, they were individually various in talent and in 
character, the appearance of the whole was grand ; and their 
conduct, if not spirited, was firm, respectable and decorous. 

The Protestant church had great weight in the commun- 
ity; the heirarchy, participating in the dignity of an inde- 
pendent parliament, possessed the united influence of spir- 
itual rank and legislative importance; the parochial clergy^ 
though well affected to the state, still adhered to the inter- 
ests of their country, and, assuming a deportment decorous 
and characteristic, were at that time generally esteemed, and 
deservedly respected. 



300 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

The provision of the inferior Protestant clergy was then 
(as at the present) quite disproportioned to their duties and 
profession. Many of that meritorious class of men, the of- 
ficiating curates, whose precepts and example were to direct 
the morals and guide the conduct of the people, had become 
grey in poverty, and laboring under the pressure of severe 
necessities, effectually preached up to their congregations 
the exercise of that charity, which would have been aptly and 
benevolently applied to their own persons. 

The general conduct of these men had at all times re- 
mained unexceptional. From them the character of the Irish 
clergy was best to be collected; the luxurious possessor of 
sinecure and plurality, enjoying ease and abundance without 
care or solicitude, must form a very inferior criterion of ex- 
perienced merit, when compared to the distressed pastor, 
whose conduct remains exemplary, while his indigence and 
necessities might have tempted him into errors. The extremes 
of income among the Protestant clergy were too distant, their 
wealth and their poverty formed too strong a contrast. 

The Catholic clergy had then an unlimited influence over 
the people of their own persuasion. Though the cruel impolicy 
of the penal statutes had not been altogether set aside, they 
remained dutiful and obedient to the sovereign power, cheer- 
fully submissive to the existing laws and friendly and affec- 
tionate to their Protestant fellow-subjects. 

Candidates for Catholic ordination were sent to Prance 
for spiritual instruction, and returned to their own country 
though learned, still retaining many of the propensities of 
their origin, they showed that their respect to superior rank, 
and submission to the constituted authorities, were rather 
increased than duninished by their foreign education. 

The monarchy of France, despotic, splendid, and power- 
ful, was at that time regarded with devotion by the French 
people, as a structure which neither time could destroy, nor 
tempests endanger. Its broad base covered every portion of 
the people ; its stupendous height was surveyed with awe, and 
its colossal strength beheld with admiration. The ecclesias- 
tical communities, fostered under its shelter, experienced the 
protection of despotic power, and, by their doctrines and 
their practice endeavored to increase its strength, and secure 
its permanence. 

The Irish student, early imbibing those monastic princi- 



In the Days of Grattan 301 

pies, was taught at Saint Omer the advantages of undefined 
power in a king, and of passive obedience in a subject; he 
was there instructed to worship a throne, and to mingle his 
devotion to heaven and to monarchy. The restoration of a 
Catholic king over Ireland had long ceased to be practicable, 
and such projects therefore, were hopeless, and relinquished ; 
and the Irish Catholic clergyman, however he might naturally 
have wished for the regal supremacy of his own sect, had long 
since abandoned every view of an object altogether unattain- 
able. 

British supremacy had then no overt enemies, save its own 
ministers, nor any conspiracies against its power, but the ar- 
bitrary determinations of its own cabinet. 

Thus returning from his novitiate, and educated with all 
the dispositions of a submissive subject he found his native 
country in a state of profound tranquillity. His views were 
contracted; his ambition extended no further than the affec- 
tions of his flock, and the enjoyments of society. The closest 
intunacy subsisted between him and his parishioners; he 
mingled in all their pastimes, and consoled them in their mis- 
eries; but the most convivial among them knew how to dis- 
tinguish clearly between the occasional familiarities of per- 
sonal intercourse, and a dutiful respect for his religious func- 
tions ; and, even though their companion might have been con- 
demned, their priest was always sure to be respected. 

The Catholic and the Protestant at the same time lived in 
habits of great harmony ; they harbored no animosities or in- 
disposition towards each other ; the one governed without op- 
position, the other submitted without resistance; and the 
Catholic clergy had every inclination to retain their flock 
within proper limits and found no difficulty in effecting that 
object. 

The severity with which the agents of the Protestant clergy 
in some parishes collected their tithes, and the exactions and 
oppressions, which the middle man exercised over the occu- 
pant of the land, occasionally excited partial disturbances; 
but, in these, there was nothing of a revolutionary nature; 
they were only the nocturnal riots of some oppressed and mis- 
managed districts which the civil power in general found no 
difficulty in suppressing. 



CHAPTER in. 

IRELAND AWAKEIirED TO A SENSE OP HER SLAVERY— DEMANDS HER 

JUST RIGHTS. 

The population of Ireland, distributed into those classes, 
endowed with those qualities, and borne down by an accumu- 
lation of impolitic and ungenerous restraints, at length awak- 
ened as it were from a deep trance. The pulse of that nation, 
torpid through habitual oppression, began to throb ; her blood, 
stimulated by the stings of injustice, which she had so long 
and so patiently endured, circulated with a new rapidity ; her 
heart, re-animated, sent motion and energy through her whole 
frame ; and from a cold and almost lifeless course, Ireland was 
seen majestically arising from the tomb of obscurity, and pay- 
ing the first tribute of her devotion at the shrine of liberty. 

Roused to a sense of her miserable situation, she cast her 
eyes around on the independent States of Europe, and com- 
pared their strength, their capacity, and their resources with 
her own. Encouraged by the view of her comparative su- 
periority, she soon perceived that she had strength, and means, 
and opportunity to redress herself from the wrongs and dep- 
redations she was suffering; and that so long as she toler- 
ated the authority of the British Legislature over her con- 
cerns, so long her commerce, her constitution, and her liber- 
ties, must lie prostrate at the foot of every British minister. 

The political situations of both nations at that critical 
period, afforded a more than common scope for political con- 
templation ; even the coldest politicians of that day were led 
involuntarily to reflect on the nature of the federative com- 
pact between the two countries, and could not avoid perceiv- 
ing the total absence of that reciprocal good faith and confi- 
dence which alone could ensure the integrity of the empire, 
or the permanence of the connection. In theory, the two na- 
tions were linked together by the strongest ties of mutual in- 
terest and mutual security; but in practice those interests 
were separated, and that conjunction of strength, on which 
the security of empires must at all times depend, was too fre- 
quently disregarded, as if England had forgotten that she 
owed a great proportion of stability to the co-operation of the 

303 



304 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Irish people, and that if one Hundred thousand Irish subjects, 
who fought her battles in her armies and in her navy, became 
even neutralized, by insults or by injuries, to their country, 
the English nation might too late discover the fatal impolicy 
of her system. 

The fundamental principles upon which the connection be- 
tween the two nations was intrinsically founded, soon became 
a subject of general inquiry and universal discussion amongst 
every rank and class of society ; and it required but little dif- 
ficulty to convey to the quick conception of a naturally acute 
and intelligent people, a comprehensive view of their rights 
and of their deprivations. Nor was Ireland, at this period, 
destitute of able and active partisans, anxious and competent 
to instruct her people in language best adapted to impress 
upon the poignancy of their national feelings, and enlarge 
the scope of their political understandings. 

They were told by these instructors, that Ireland was con- 
stitutionally connected with Great Britain, upon the basis of 
a complete equality of rights, that she possessed a resident 
Parliament of her own, competent, in all points, to legislate 
on her own concerns, in no point connected with, or subordi- 
nate to, that of Great Britain. 

That their king was bound to govern Ireland, not through 
his crown of England, but through his crown of Ireland- 
conferred upon him by the Irish nation, and worn by him, in 
conjunction with that of Great Britain, as the chief magistrate 
of both— but to govern each country severally by their respec- 
tive laws and their distinct legislatures, and not the one 
through the other, and though the Irish crown was, by the 
constitution of that country, placed for ever on the head of the 
same legislative monarch who should wear that of England; 
yet the Irish people were not legally bound to obey any laws 
but those enacted by their own legislature, to transfer the 
sceptre of their realm to any usurped authority, or submit to 
the hostile or corrupt policy of any minister who might oc- 
casionally occupy the seat of power in England; that their 
oath of allegiance was taken to the king of Ireland, and not 
to the Parliament of Great Britain; that the establishment 
of this principle was indispensable to their existence as a na- 
tion, and that every violation of it was a direct deviation 
from the duty of the Irish crown, and a virtual dereliction of 
the compact between the two countries; and that the king's 



In the Days of Grattan 305 

ministers of either country advising nnconstitutional meas- 
ures, to violate the constitutional independence of Ireland, 
must be considered as traitors to the Irish crown, and ene- 
mies to the British empire. 

It was also observed, that this assumption of authority 
to legislate for Ireland, whatever coloring it might have re- 
ceived by the dissimulation or ingenuity of its supporters, 
had, in fact, for its real object the restraint of her commerce 
and the suppression of her manufactures, so far as they 
might interfere with the interests of England; because the 
management of the mere local concerns of Ireland by her own 
parliament was altogether immaterial to Great Britain, un- 
less where a commercial rivalship might be the probable con- 
sequence of successful industry and legislative encourage- 
ment. 

From this reasoning, it was obvious that the redress of 
these grievances could not depend solely upon any exertions 
of the Irish legislature. The Peers— from the causes herein- 
before assigned— were influenced at that time by a very small 
portion of public feeling ; the measures of the commons might 
be suppressed by an act of the Privy Council ; and it became 
manifest, that an universal and determined co-operation of 
the whole people with their representatives, to rescue their 
representation by vigorous measures, could alone operate 
with sufficient effect upon the policy and fears of England; 
and that a general appeal to the people would be justified by 
the soundest axioms of civil government; as long experience 
had fully ascertained, that nothing was to be gained by the 
forbearance of the one nation, or to be expected from the 
voluntary justice of the other. 

The Irish people being thus apprised of the real source 
of all their grievances, the subject quickly engrossed their 
whole thoughts, and became familiar to their understandings. 
A new and broad field of reflection was opened to the middle 
orders ; political discussions necessarily followed from day to 
day; at every public and private meeting, and in every dis- 
trict, these discussions turned on the principles of liberty, 
and as the subject expanded, their ideas became enlarged; 
those who could read, liberally instructed the illiterate as to 
the rudiments of their history and the rights of the consti- 
tution ; and by familiar deductions the misery of the peasant 
was without difficulty brought home to the corruption of the 



306 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ministers. All ranks of the community began to mingle and 
converse at their public meetings ; the influence of that gen- 
eral communication diffused itself rapidly amongst every 
class of society ; and the people, after having perfectly ascer- 
tained the hardships of their situation, naturally proceeded to 
discuss the most decisive means of redressing their griev- 
ances. 

The circumstances of public affairs in America and on the 
continent of Europe, but more especially in England herself, 
were every moment becoming more and more propitious to the 
political emancipation of Ireland. A dark cloud appeared 
collecting over the head of Great Britain— the rays of the 
setting sun could scarcely penetrate the obscurity of the 
gloom which surrounded her— and though she faced the im- 
pending hurricane with magnanimity and perseverance, she 
experienced a most anxious solicitude at the awful crisis which 
was rapidly approaching her. 

Her situation was terrific. The States of America, col- 
onized by her industry, and peopled by her convicts tearing 
themselves away from the mother country, and appealing 
to the whole world against the tyranny which had at once 
caused and justified her disobedience. British armies wan- 
dering through boundless deserts, and associating with the 
savage tribes for savage purposes, dwindling by their vic- 
tories, and diminishing by their conquests, surrendering their 
swords to those whom they had recently vanquished, and 
lowering the flag of England, with all the courtesies of con- 
tinental warfare, to those very men whom the preceding mo- 
ment they had proclaimed as traitors to their king and to 
their country. 

However, the wise and deliberate measures which Ireland 
on this occasion adopted, proved not only her unshaken fidel- 
ity, but her moderation and her unaffected attachment to 
Great Britain. She saw the perilous situation of her sister 
country; and though she determined to profit by the crisis, 
in justly reclaiming her commerce and her constitution, she 
also determined to stand or fall with the British empire, and 
to share the fate of England in the tremendous confederacies 
which were formed and were forming against her. 

The Irish people felt that they had a double duty to per- 
form—to themselves, and to their posterity. England her- 
self had given them a precedent. She had proved by the ex- 



In the Days of Grattan 307 

perienee of centuries, that when she had an object to achieve 
in Ireland, she had never been restrained by the punctilious 
dictates either of honor or humanity, and had never failed 
to take advantage of the feebleness of Ireland to impose the 
grievous weight of her arbitrary restrictions ; she had, at all 
periods, systematically encouraged the internal dissensions 
of that people, the better to humble them for the yoke which 
she had always been ready to place upon their country. Ire- 
land, therefore, felt that she would be justified by British 
precedent to take advantage of this important crisis, and that 
even the practical principles of the British constitution had 
declared and justified the right of popular resistance. Eng- 
land had, upon the same principle of resistance to arbitrary 
power, attempted to justify the murder of one king, and the 
despotism of another, whilst Ireland, preferring her alle- 
giance to her policy, remained faithful to both, and was re- 
warded for her loyalty by massacre and confiscation. 

However, a hasty or impetuous resistance of the Irish peo- 
ple, even to the most arbitrary acts of their King or of their 
Government, was by no means a principle congenial to their 
political character; whilst it was obvious to the whole world 
that England had adopted those violent and outrageous pro- 
ceedings against her own monarchs, upon principles and pre- 
tenses far less constitutional, and more inconsistent with her 
liberties, than the measures and conduct which had been wan- 
tonly and systematically practiced by British ministers 
against Irish freedom. With this useful and awful lesson 
before her eyes, Ireland wisely considered that she would best 
raise and establish her national character, and effect her just 
objects, by a gradual reassumption of her rights, and a tem- 
perate and fair demand of constitutional liberty; that her 
moderation would form an edifying contrast to the violence 
and intemperance of England, whenever her liberties were 
invaded, and that the advantage which the embarrassed state 
of Great Britain had now thrown into the hands of Ireland, 
would be most honorably exercised by a calm and loyal, but 
resolute and effectual proceeding. She perceived, however, 
that the moment most favorable to her objects had arrived; 
which, if suffered to pass by without effort, might never re- 
cur; and it therefore only remained to Ireland to ascertain 
the means most moderate but most likely to call Great Britain 
to a sense of reason and of justice, and to secure to herself 



308 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the attainment of her rights, without the danger of hostile 
convulsion, or the horrors of civil conflict. 

England, notwithstanding she had in some instances sus- 
pended, and in others prohibited, the exportation of Irish 
manufactures, inundated the Irish markets with every species 
of her own ; and with a view effectually to destroy all power 
of competition in Ireland, the great capitalists of England 
determined, even at any loss, to undersell the Irish in their 
own markets— a loss, however, which they thought would be 
eventually and amply repaid by the monopoly which must 
necessarily succeed the utter destruction of Irish manufac- 
ture. 

This system it was impossible for the Irish manufacturer 
to resist or counteract; his capital was too small to bear the 
losses of competition; resistance would have been vain; he 
had therefore no alternative but to change his trade, or sub- 
mit, and famish. 

It depended on the exertions of the people at large to re- 
sist every vicious and destructive project; and they lost no 
time in adopting incipient measures of resistance. With this 
view, they resolutely determined to adopt a non-importation 
and non-consumption agreement throughout the whole king- 
dom ; and by excluding not only the importation, but the con- 
sumption of any British manufacture in Ireland, visited back 
upon the English combinators the ruin of their own treachery. 
No sooner was this measure publicly proposed, than it was 
universally adopted ; it flew quicker than the wind throughout 
the whole nation; the manufacturing bodies, the corporate 
towns, the small retailers, the general merchants, at ouce 
universally adopted this vigorous determination, and the 
great body of the people, by general resolutions, and univer- 
sal acclamations, avowed their firm determination to support 
the measure, till they should acquire a restoration of their 
political rights. 

Meanwhile, the armed associations hourly gained strength 
in great numbers; they began to acquire the appendages 
and establishments of a regular army— discipline and con- 
fidence; and gradually consolidated themselves into regi- 
ments and brigades; some procured cannon and field equip- 
ages, and formed companies of artillery; the completion of 
one corps stimulated the formation of another, and at length 
almost every independent Protestant of Ireland was enrolled 



In the Days of Grattan 309 

as a patriot soldier ; and the whole body of the Catholics de- 
clared themselves the decided auxiliaries of their armed coun- 
trymen. 

This extraordinary armament— the recollections of which 
will forever excite in Ireland a devotion to the cause of lib- 
erty, which neither time can efface nor misfortunes ex- 
tinguish—actuated solely by the pure spirit of incorruptible 
patriotism, and signalized by a conduct more temperate and 
more judicious than had ever controlled the acts and ob- 
jects of any military body in the history of the world. 

The modern military corps, which have been so skillfully, 
and perhaps wisely, embodied, to preclude any recurrence to 
the measure of volunteering, possess no anaology to these 
celebrated associations, save that the royalty of the Volun- 
teers was to their country and their King— the loyalty of 
the Yeomen, to the King of England and to his Ministers. 

Self-formed, and self-governed, the Volunteers accepted 
no commissions whatever from the Crown, and acknowledged 
no connection whatever with the Government; the private 
men appointed their own officers, and occasionally cashiered 
them for misconduct or miscapacity; they accepted no pay, 
the more wealthy soldier cheerfully shared his funds with 
his poorer comrade— and the officers contributed their pro- 
portions to the general stock purse. 

Yet notwithstanding this perverted state of all military 
establishments, their subordination was complete; the sol- 
dier obeyed, from the instinctive impulse of honor to himself 
and duty to his country ; the officer commanded upon the same 
principle, and very few instances occurred where either were 
found to deviate from the straightened line of military recti- 
tude. The rules of discipline were adopted by general as- 
sent, and that passive obedience which, in regular armies, is 
enforced by punishment amongst the Volunteers of Ireland, 
was effected by honor. 

They assumed various uniforms ; green, white, scarlet, or 
blue were the prevailing colors. Their line, therefore, ap- 
peared variegated, and peculiarly striking. Their arms were 
at first provided by themselves; but the extraordinary in- 
crease of their numbers rendered them at length unable to 
procure a sufficient supply by purchase; they had then buf 
one course— they confidently required arms from the Govern- 
ment; the Government, whatever reluctance they might have 



310 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

felt to arm men who acknowledged no supremacy, yet did not 
think it safe to refuse their demand ; and with an averted eye 
handed out to the Volunteers twenty thousand stands of arms 
from the Castle of Dublin. 

Being completely equipped, the acquirement of persons 
capable of instructing so large a body in military tactics, ap- 
peared a matter of the greatest difficulty ; but the same events 
which had at first inspired the Irish with a determination to 
arm, furnished them with the means not only of acquiring 
discipline, but of increasing their ardor. 

The disasters of the American war had restored to the 
bosom of Ireland many brave men, whose health had sunk 
under the consequences of wounds and sufferings, and who, 
having witnessed the successful struggles of America for lib- 
erty, had returned to Ireland at that moment when she was 
critically preparing to assert her own. The association of 
these experienced veterans was sedulously courted by the 
Irish Volunteers; their orders were obeyed with confidence 
and alacrity, and amongst the country corps the effect of 
their instructions became suddenly conspicuous ; and, under 
their experience, discipline advanced with rapid progress. 

The intercourse and conversation of those persons also 
had a powerful effect, by transfusing into their pupils that 
military mind which a veteran soldier can never relinquish. 
In their convivial hours, the sergeant, surrounded by his com- 
pany, expatiating on the events of actual service, and intro- 
ducing episodes of individual bravery, perhaps of his own 
undauntedness and sagacity, gradually banished every other 
topic from conversation at those meetings. The successful 
perseverance of America had impressed even the soldier him- 
self who had fought against her, with an involuntary respect 
for the principles of his enemies ; a constant intercourse with 
his Irish associates soon excited in him congenial feelings, 
and he began to listen with pleasure to their interesting ques- 
tion, ''"Why should not his own brave countrymen possess 
as much constitutional liberty as those foreign colonists who 
had conquered?" 

It is difficult to conceive of the fascination which seized 
upon the heretofore contracted intellect of the military farmer, 
by a repetition of these novel and warlike subjects ; the mar- 
tial propensity of his innate character had already rendered 
him peculiarly susceptible of these animating impressions, 



In the Days of Grattan 311 

and he now almost imperceptibly imbibed a military mind, and 
acquired a soldier's feeling. In a word, the whole nation be- 
came enamoured of arms, and those who were not permitted 
to bear them, considered themselves as honored by being em- 
ployed to carry the food and amniunition of the soldier. 

The chief commanders of these armed bodies were men 
of the highest and most distinguished characters, and each 
corps was in general headed by persons of the first respecta- 
bility in their respective districts, selected generally for their 
popularity and independence; but all these corps were, for 
a considerable time, totally distinct and unconnected; nor 
was it until they had formed into a consolidated column, un- 
der the command of the amiable and illustrious Charlemont, 
that they acquired the irresistible impulse of a co-operating 
power. The mild, but determined patriotism of that respected 
nobleman, gave a new tint of character to the whole army 
which he commanded, and chased away the tongue of slander 
from their objects and their conduct. 

In the number of those who, at this moment were launched, 
for the first time, into public observation, there appeared a 
person, who, without possessing the highest reputation for 
public talent, or the most undeviating line of public principle, 
by the honest and spirited termination of his political life, 
has been justly raised upon the elevated pedestal of national 
gratitude; a person, whose early appointment to the first 
financial department of Ireland, and whose official conduct 
from that day to the catastrophe of the Irish Parliament, will 
necessarily be the subject of frequent and important observa- 
tions, and authorizes an introduction of his name and charac- 
ter, at an earlier stage of this history, than would otherwise 
be consistent with the regular detail of a progressive narra- 
tive. 

Sir John Parnell, the commandant of a Volunteer assoc- 
ciation, was the son of a crafty and prudent minor politician 
(Sir John Parnell, of Eathlegue, in the Queen's County), and 
was educated with a view to a diplomatic situation; but on 
his return from the Continent, was found by his father too 
deficient in the necessary attainments of evasion and dupli- 
city, to qualify him for the high departments of foreign diplo- 
macy; his talents, therefore, became destined for home con- 
sumption, and by the intrigues of his father, and a forced 
exertion of his own abilities, he was soon noticed in the Irish 



312 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Parliament as a person of more than ordinary capacity— and 
after a veering course of local politics, he was appointed Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer. In that situation he continued, till 
the project of a union called forth the public virtues of every 
man who possessed any, and too late opened the eyes of the 
nation to its steady friends, and to its temporizing enemies. 

Sir elohn Parnell had an eminent capacity for public busi- 
ness, but a lamentable deficiency of system in its arrange- 
ment. His strong mind and cultivated understanding lost 
much of their effect by the flurry of his manner, which fre- 
quently impeded the perspicuity of his language. 

His intellect was clear, his memory retentive and his con- 
ception just ; he possessed esteem without an effort to obtain 
it, and preserved his friends, without exercising his patron- 
age; he supported the Ministry without offending the oppo- 
sition, and all parties united in calling him an honorable man. 

Plain, frank, cheerful and convivial, he generally pre- 
ferred society to trouble, and seemed to have rid himself of a 
weight when he had executed a duty. As a financier, he was 
not perfect— as a statesman he was not deep— as a courtier, 
he was not polished— but as an officer, he was not corrupt ; and 
though many years in possession of high office, and extensive 
patronage, he showed a disinterestedness almost unparal- 
leled; and the name of a relative, or of a dependent, of his 
own, scarcely in a single instance increased the place or the 
pension list of Ireland. 

Though his education and habits were ministerial, his 
mind was intrinsically patriotic, and a sentiment of inde- 
pendent spirit not unfrequently burst out from under the 
pressure of that official restriction which the duty of his sta- 
tion had necessarily imposed upon him ; but his appointment 
as a minister never induced him to forget his birth as an 
Irishman, and his attachments to the sovereign never dimin- 
ished his philanthropy to the subject. 

After an honest, faithful, and zealous service of his king, 
for seventeen years— as Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer- 
he was called upon by the minister to sacrifice his principle 
and betray his country— to efface the impressions of his 
youth and tarnish the honor of his maturity— to violate his 
faith and falsify his conviction ; but the fetters of office could 
not restrain the spirit of its captive ; he lost his station, but 
he retained his integrity, and was compensated for the conse- 



In the Days of Grattan 313 

quences of an undeserved dismissal, by the approbation of his 
conscience and the affection of his country. 

The Volunteer corps which he commanded, early and zeal- 
ously adopted the cause of Irish independence— a cause he 
strenuously adhered to, to the last moment of his existence— 
and in that noble firmness with which he resisted a legisla- 
tive union, and disobeyed the mandates of a crafty and vin- 
dictive viceroy; he has left to the present age a brilliant 
and a rare example of a minister, honest enough to prefer his 
character to his officer, and proud enough to postpone his 
interest to his honor. 

The Volunteer system now becoming universal in Ireland, 
effected an im.portant and visible change in the minds and 
manners of the middle and lower orders of the people ; by the 
occurrence of new events, and the promulgation of novel prin- 
ciples, their natural character became affected in all its bear- 
ings, and acquired, or rather disclosed, new points, which at 
that period tended to promote their prosperity, but eventually 
formed the grand pretence for the distinguishment of their 
independence. 

The familiar association of all ranks, which the nature of 
their new military connection necessarily occasioned, every 
day lessened that wide distinction, which had theretofore sep- 
arated the higher and lower orders of society— the landlord 
and the tenant— the nobleman and the artisan— the general 
and the soldier— now, for the first time, sat down at the same 
board, shared the same fare, and enjoyed the same con- 
viviality. The lower order learned their own weight in the 
community; the higher were taught their dependence on the 
people ; and those whose illiterate minds had never before con- 
ceived or thought on the nature of political constitutions, or 
the fundamental principles of civil government, now learned 
from the intercourse and conversation of their superiors, the 
rudiments of that complicated but noble science, the miscon- 
ception and the abuse of which, has since become the severest 
scourge that ever afflicted the states of Europe. 

A visible alteration was also soon observable in the gen- 
eral appearance of the period; the squalid garb and careless 
dress of the Irish farmer was now exchanged for the minute 
cleanliness and regularity of the soldier. A striking revolu- 
tion took place not only in the minds, but also in the external 
appearance of the Irish ; their intellect acquired strength by 



314 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



exercise and information— their address was improved by in- 
tercourse and discipline— and their general appearance by- 
dress and regularity ; and had not the same causes, which led 
to the concessions of 1782, induced the British Government 
to recall the constitution which had been wrested from its 
feebleness, these unparalleled associations would have con- 
ferred advantages on the country, beyond all measures which 
human wisdom could have suggested for its improvement. 




Omament on top of Devenish Round Tower. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers," 400. 



CHAPTER IV. 

EVENTS IN THE IRISH HOUSE OF COMMONS— PUBLIC CHARACTER OP 
HENRY GRATTAN — CHARLEMONT AND THE VOLUNTEERS. 

While those transactions were taking place throughout the 
country, a memorable and unexpected event occurred in the 
Irish Parliament. 

The sessions of 1779-80 commenced with a scene which, 
while it elevated the Irish people to the height of expectation, 
and inspired them with a new confidence, paralyzed the Brit- 
ish Government, and for the first moment, made known decid- 
edly to the councils of that country, that they had no longer 
to deal with a timid, dispirited, and unprotected nation. 

The adoption of non-important and non-consumption 
agreements had already created considerable anxiety in the 
British Minister as to the probable result of the ensuing ses- 
sion, and the Lord Lieutenant was directed to open the Par- 
liament with a speech, remotedly alluding to his Majesty's 
sentiments of liberality, but without specifying any measure 
of concession, and so cautiously guarded, as neither to alarm 
the public nor commit the Grovernment; but the days of in- 
sipidity had now passed away; the Viceroy's speeches from 
the throne, for almost a century, had been composed nearly 
in the same commonplace language and trite observation, and 
the addresses of both Houses, in reply to those speeches, had 
been almost invariably mere echoes of the speech itself, with 
general assurances of liberal supplies and increasing loyalty. 

On the opening of the Session, however, there appeared a 
more than common sensation amongst the leading members 
of Parliament ; the strong and animated declarations of public 
sentiment which had been published during the prorogation, 
made an extraordinary impression, but the extent or conse- 
quences of that impression could not be ascertained, until 
the proceedings of the House of Commons gave an oppor- 
tunity of observing what effect the new spirit of the people 
would now have upon the conduct of their representatives. 

At length the Parliament assembled; the anxious and in- 
quisitive eye of the Secretary and of the steady partisans of 
government passed rapidly throughout the whole House 

315 



316 Ireland's Crown op Thorns and Roses 

alarmed by the appearance of some unusual resistance, they 
endeavored, from the looks, the suggestions, the manner of 
the members, to prejudge the results of the first night's de- 
bates, which had generally decided the complexion of the 
ensuing session, but no sagacity could have anticipated the 
turn which Irish affairs were to receive on that night— no 
human foresight could have predicted that blow which the 
system of the British Cabinet was about to receive by one 
single sentence— or have foreseen that that single sentence 
would be the composition of the first law-officer of the Irish 
Government. 

The Lord Lieutenant's speech was delivered by him, in the 
House of Lords in the accustomed tone of confidence, am- 
biguity, and frivolous recommendations; and in the Com- 
mons, the usual echo and adulatory address was moved by Sir 
Robert Deane, a person devoted to the views of Government. 
A pause succeeded and an unusual communication was per- 
ceivable between several members on the Government and 
the Opposition sides of the House. A decided resistance to 
the usual qualified address now became certain; the Secre- 
tary, moving irresolutely from place to place, was seen en- 
deavoring to collect the individual opinions of the members 
—and the law-officers of the Crown evinced a diffidence never 
more observable before in their department; throughout the 
House a new sense of expectation and anxiety was evident. 

At length Mr. Henry Grattan arose, with a somewhat more 
than usual solemnity; he seemed laboring with his own 
thoughts, and preparing his mind for a more than ordinary 
exertion. The address and the language of this extraordinary 
man were perfectly original; from his first essay in Parlia- 
ment, a strong sensation had been excited by the point and 
eccentricity of his powerful eloquence— nor was it long until 
those transcendent talents, which afterwards distinguished 
this celebrated personage, were perceived rising above or- 
dinary capacities, and, as a charm, communicating to his 
countrymen that energy, that patriotism, and that persever- 
ance, for which he himself became so eminently distinguished; 
his action, his tone, his elocution in public speaking, bore no 
resemblance to that of any other person; the flights of genius, 
the arrangements of composition, and the solid strength of 
connected reasoning, were singularly blended in his fiery, yet 
deliberative language ; he thought in antithesis, his irony and 



In the Days of Grattan 317 

his satire, rapid and epigrammatic, bore down all opposition, 
and left him no rival in the broad fxeld of eloquent invective ; 
his ungraceful action, however, and the hesitating tardiness of 
his first sentences, conveyed no favorable impression to those 
who listened only to his exordium, but the progress of his 
brilliant and manly eloquence soon absorbed every idea, but 
that of admiration at the overpowering extent of his intellec- 
tual faculties. 

This was Mr. Henry Grattan of 1779— in the vicissitudes 
of whose subsequent life will be remarked three distinct eras 
of public character, and disgusting proofs of popular incon- 
sistency—the era of his glory, the era of his calumny, and the 
era of his resurrection; in the first, elevated to a pitch of 
unbounded gratification, by the attachment, the gratitude, and 
the munificence of his countrjnnen ; in the second, despoiled of 
health, of happiness, and of character, by the artifices of a 
powerful enemy, and in the third rising from a bed of sick- 
ness, re-embarking a shattered frame in the service of his 
country. In Parliament he taught the doctrines of Molyneux 
and of Lucas ; he drew the true constitutional distinctions be- 
tween the Crown and the Government, the magistrate and the 
function, the individual and the sceptre. But the partiality 
of the friend may possibly bias the pen of the historian ; his 
public principles will be best ascertained by tracing the un- 
deviating line of his public conduct. 

The career of this extraordinary man is finished. But 
he survived his countrj^, he lived to view the demolition of 
that noble fabric raised by the exertion of his own virtue and 
perseverance, and the catastrophe of that constitution, which, 
**as he watched over it in its cradle, so he attended it to its 
grave. ' * 

After an oration, replete with most luminous reasoning, 
the severest censure, pathetic and irresistible eloquence, Mr. 
Grattan moved an amendment to the address, viz., ''That we 
beseech your Majesty to believe, that it is with the utmost re- 
luctance that we are constrained to approach you on the 
present occasion ; but the constant drain to supply absentees, 
and the unfortunate prohibition of our trade, have caused 
such calamity, that the natural support of our country has 
decayed, and our manufacturers are dying for want; famine 
stalks hand in hand with hopeless wretchedness; and the 
only means left to support the expiring trade of this miser- 



318 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

able part of your Majesty's dominions, is to open a free ex- 
port trade, and let your Irish subjects enjoy their natural 
birthright. ' ' 

His arguments had been so conclusive, his position so self- 
evident, his language so vigorous and determined, his predic- 
tions so alarming, and the impression which those combined 
qualities made upon the House was so deep, and so exten- 
sive, that the supporters of Government, paralyzed and pas- 
sive, seemed almost ready to resign the victory, before they 
had even attempted a resistance. 

The confusion which now appeared on the Treasury bench 
was very remarkable— became very unusual. The Secretary 
(Sir Eichard Heron), for the first time showed a painful 
mistrust in the steadiness of his followers ; he perceived that 
the spirit of the House was rising into a storm, which all the 
influence of his office would not be able to allay, direct oppo- 
sition would be injudicious, if not fatal, palpable evasion 
would be altogether impracticable, the temporizing system 
was almost worn out, and procrastination seemed to yield no 
better prospect of a favorable issue; the officers of Govern- 
ment sat sullenly on their benches, awaiting their customary 
cue from the lips of the Minister, but he was too skillful to 
commit himself to a labyrinth, from whence return was so 
difficult and precarious, and all was silent. At length Sir 
Henry Cavendish hesitatingly arose, to declare his dissent 
to this first decided effort of the Irish Parliament to assert 
its liberties. 

Sir Henry Cavendish was one of those persons who are 
generally found in the front of a popular assembly, and ac- 
quire notoriety by becoming the oracle of some insulated de- 
partment. Though possessed of a plain, shrewd understand- 
ing, abundance of craft, a convenient temper, and imposing 
plausibility; after unavailing effort to acquire the fame of a 
rhetorician. Sir Henry contented himself with the reputation 
of profound knowledge in parliamentary precedents and 
points of order. 

He was ever prepared with a string of parliamentary 
precedents, appropriate to every question, and adapted to 
every circumstance, which he skilfully contrived to substitute 
for reasoning, and oppose to argument, and should his prolific 
memory chance to fail him in the quotation of his documents, 
his inventive genius never let the subject fail for want of an 
auxiliary. 



In the Days of Grattan 319 

On points of order he was at least as garrulous as ortho- 
dox, and peculiarly expert at critical interruption ; under color 
of keeping order, he assumed a license for transgressing it— 
and in affecting to check the digression of others, he fre- 
quently made it the first figure of his own rhetoric ; he was 
admirably calculated for desultory debate— when he was 
right he was concise— when he was wrong he was pertinacious, 
sarcastic, obstinate, plausible, persevering; he gained time 
when he could not make proselytes, and became the very 
essence and soul of procrastination. Sir Henry was well 
aware that he durst not venture an unqualified negative, and 
endeavored craftily to administer his panacea of precedents, 
and to propose what he termed ''something more orderly in 
the House, and more sagacious to the Sovereign." He said 
he would vote against the amendment— that the business 
would be better affected by following a precedent in the year 
1661, when the Lords and Commons of Ireland appointed com- 
missioners to attend the King— to "supplicate the redress of 
grievances. ' ' 

The die was not cast— and a resistance to the measure 
was announced and proceeded on. Mr. Scott (Attorney Gen- 
eral) affected to support Sir Henry; but as if conscious of 
his ultimate failure, he appeared almost a new character ; the 
bold audacity of his address degenerated into an insidious 
plausibility ; his arrogance fled without an effort, and for once 
in his life he was tame, vapid, and equivocal. An ardent 
spirit now burst forth from every quarter in the House. Mr. 
Henry Flood, a most prominent personage in Irish history, 
whose endowments were great, and whose character was dis- 
tinguished, the Provost— Mr. Ogle, Sir Edward Newnham, 
and many others, declared their coincidence with the amend- 
ment. But though it stated, in true and pathetic language, 
the miseries Ireland was subject to, by reason of her absen- 
tees, if pressed too strongly on the tenderest spot of the in- 
terest of Britons, to admit of their concurrence; while, on 
the other side, it was conceived not to be thoroughly explicit 
—and not sufficiently pre-emptory— the object was most im- 
portant, the moment was most critical, and the amendment 
was exceptional. These difficulties had been foreseen. 

Mr. Hussey Burgh (The Prime Sergeant) at length arose 
from the Treasury bench, with that proud dignity so con- 
genial to his character, and declared, that he would never 



820 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

support any Government, in fraudulently concealing from a 
King the right of his people; that the high office which he 
possessed could hold no competition with his principles and 
his conscience, and he should consider the relinquishment of 
his gown only as a just sacrifice upon the altar of his country ; 
that strong statement, rather than pathetic supplication, was 
adapted to the crisis ; and he proposed to Mr. Grattan to sub- 
stitute for his amendment the following words : ' ' That it is 
not by temporary expedients, that this nation is now to be 
saved from impending ruin. ' ' 

The effect of his speech was altogether indescribable, nor 
is it easily to be conceived by those who were not witnesses 
of that remarkable transaction; the House, quick in its con- 
ception, and rapidly susceptible of every impression, felt the 
whole force of this unexpected and important secession. The 
talent, the character, the eloquence of this great man, bore 
down every symptom of further resistance ; many of the usual 
supporters of Government, and some of the Viceroy's im- 
mediate connections, instantly followed his example, and in 
a moment the victory was decisive— not a single negative 
could the Minister procure, and Mr. Burgh's amendment 
passed unanimously, amidst a tumult of joy and exultation. 

This triumph of Irish patriotism made an instantaneous 
and powerful impression on the minds of the people; it was 
their first victory, and the Minister's first discomfiture. The 
volunteers attributed this unexpected success to the impres- 
sions which their spirit had diffused throughout the country, 
and they determined to adopt this measure, as if it had been 
their own offspring, and thereby identify the virtues of the 
Parliament with the energies of the people. On the circum- 
stance being anounced, the drums beat to arms; the volun- 
teer associations collected in every part of the metropolis; 
and they resolved to line the streets and accompany to the 
gates of the Castle that part of the legislative body which 
moved in solemn procession, to present their wholesome 
warning into the hands of the Viceroy. 

The secession of Mr. Burgh from the Government was 
not more important than that of M. Conolly, brother-in-law 
to the Viceroy, and Mr. Burton Cunningham, a constant sup- 
porter of the ministerial measures— men in high estimation 
and of large fortunes— which gave Mr. Grattan an oppor- 



In the Days of Grattan 321 

tunity for observing, that ''the people were just getting 
landed security for the attainment of their liberties." 

The effect of this measure, though in its nature inconclu- 
sive, appeared to lay the first stone of Irish independence, 
and greatly increased both the numbers and confidence in 
Volunteer associations. 

Several attempts had previously been made to fix the 
attention of the British legislature on the distressed and 
dangerous situation of Ireland; but every effort had 
proved totally abortive. Although the critical state of 
that country had been discussed in both Houses of Parlia- 
ment, and addresses had been voted to the King requesting 
his immediate attention to the affairs of Ireland, to which 
favorable answers had been returned by his Majesty; and 
though the Irish Commons had also framed a resolution, in 
the langTiage of more than common expostulation, yet the sub- 
ject passed away from the attention of the Ministers, and 
even this session closed, affording only further and decided 
proofs of their temporizing duplicity. 

G-reat Britain was not as yet sufficiently alarmed to be- 
come just; she could not as yet be persuaded that the Irish 
people were competent to the redress of their own grievances ; 
and she considered the warmth of their public declarations 
only as the brilliant flashes of a temporary patriotism. 

Her egotism blinded her to her state and she fancied that 
the same revolution which had confirmed her liberties, had sub- 
jected to her power the liberties of her sister ; and still para- 
mount to justice and to policy, she felt too proud to bend her 
attention to the grievances which she herself had inflicted. 

Some powerful friends of Ireland at length began zeal- 
ously to espouse her interests. The good Earl Nugent, 
whose memory and character are still revered by those who 
recollect the sincerity of his attachment to that country in 
1778, made an effort in the British Lords to call their atten- 
tion to the distresses of Ireland ; but his efforts were ineffec- 
tual. The same nobleman soon after repeated the same 
efforts ; but his weight and abilities were not equal to his zeal 
and integrity. His motion was treated with an unbecoming 
superciliousness by Lord North, and death unfortunately, 
soon after, deprived his country of one of the truest friends 
and most dignified and honest advocates. 

The Earl of Shelburne, in the Lords, and the Earl of Up- 



322 Ireland^s CroWn of Thorns and Roses 

per Ossory, in the Commons, also proposed strong resolutions 
in both Houses, declaratory of the dangerous state of the 
country. But though the motion was well-timed, the motives 
of the noble movers did not proceed from the same feeling 
which actuated the resident inhabitants of Ireland. Neither 
of those noblemen had been habitual friends to the general 
interests of that country. Both of them were total absentees 
—they possessed large estates in Ireland, and trembled for 
their properties— they acted in general opposition to the 
Government, and wished to register the culpability of their 
adversaries. Their motions were, after very sharp debates, 
rejected in both Houses, and Ireland became fully and finally 
convinced, that it was not through the occasional exertion of 
Irish emigrants, in a foreign legislature, that she was to seek 
for the recovery of her rights and alleviation of her miseries. 

Applications to the Government, petitions to the Parlia- 
ment and supplications to the Crown had all been tried in 
vain; neither the bold remonstrances of right nor the pierc- 
ing cries of necessity could reach the royal ear, or penetrate 
the circle of ministers which surrounded the British thronCj 
and concealed from the Irish King a distinct view of his Irish 
people. Humble and pathetic language had failed, the voice 
of the nation was exhausted by unavailing supplication, and 
it now became full time to act in the cause of liberty. 

Such being the ascertained disposition of the whole body 
of the people, not a moment was to be lost in the adoption 
of some measure, too strong to be despised by ministers, and 
too moderate to be dangerous to the connection. Delay might 
now terminate all the hopes of Ireland, the crisis might pass 
away, the public spirit might cool, and the moment so auspi- 
cious to the interests of the nation might be lost forever. 
Though this determination quickly circulated throughout the 
whole country, the people still acted with that deliberate firm- 
ness, which, of all conduct, is the most fatal to a political ad- 
versary, and adds most strength and character to popular 
proceedings. 

The personages who then led Ireland forward to her blood- 
less victory, well knew the inestimable value of that prudent 
principle. They were men of great abilities, profound wis- 
dom, and effective patriotism, which considers activity its 
necessary friend, but precipitation its almost dangerous 
enemy. They instructed the people, that while they acted 



In the Days of GrattaN 323 

with undeviating firmness, they should also act with pruden- 
tial moderation— that the suspended liberties of the people 
were most likely to be recovered from a powerful oppressor, 
by a determined but cool and progressive perseverance— that 
by deliberate system none would be alarmed— wise men 
would be attended to, the impetuous be restrained, the waver- 
ing confirmed, and the people steadied ; patriotism and confi- 
dence would grow up together and become more intimately 
blended, and the whole nation without alarm, be imperceptibly 
led to one common centre, and become more competent to 
achieve the strongest measures, before they were well aware 
that they had commenced the preparation for them. 

They were instructed, that on the other hand, undigested 
and impetuous proceedings, if not successful, by the first 
rapidity of their execution, in general defeat their own ob- 
ject, and rivet the chains of that country which they were 
intended to emancipate ; that it is more practicable to advance 
on gradual claims than recede from extravagant determina- 
tions, and that the inevitable miseries of civil war, however 
justifiable upon the principles and precedent of constitutional 
resistance, established at the revolution, should be the last 
resource even of an enslaved people; and, that though the 
Irish were armed, and might demand concession in the atti- 
tude and tone of confidence, it would be much wiser to give 
their incipient proceedings the weight and character of citi- 
zens, and reserve for the last extremity the threat of soldiers ; 
that England, by this means, would be sufficiently informed 
of the determination of Ireland, without feeling her pride too 
much hurt, to propose a negotiation, or so much alarmed as 
to prepare for resistance. 

This discreet reasoning had its full effect upon the gener- 
ality of the nation ; and though the ebullitions of public feeling 
occasionally broke forth in ardent resolutions of the Volun- 
teer associations, the temperate system was generally 
adopted ; and it was only upon fully experiencing its final fail- 
ing, that the exhilarating shouts of an embattled people were 
heard reverberating from every quarter of a military country. 

As before mentioned, public resolutions neither to import, 
purchase, or consume any British manufacture, or commodity 
whatever, had been universally but peaceable adopted, 
throughout the whole island, a measure at all times justifiable 
by an^ people who may have been deprived of their com- 



324 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

merce and their constitution by tlie power or the machinations 
of an insidious neighbor. 

Inundated as Ireland had been with every species of 
British manufacture, there could be no step so just, so mod- 
erate, or which promised so many beneficial consequences, as 
the total exclusion from the Irish markets of every com- 
modity which she was herself competent to manufacture, or 
of which she could possibly dispense with the immediate con- 
sumption. However, it was not until after the grievances 
of Ireland could be no longer endured, and she found that 
nothing but propositions, without sufficient latitude to be 
beneficial, or security to be permanent, were offered for her 
acceptance, that these resolutions became almost universal— 
spread themselves like a rapid flame throughout every village 
of the island— and were zealously promoted by almost every 
individual in the country. At length a general meeting was 
convened by the High Sheriffs of the city of Dublin, and 
resolutions then entered into by the whole metropolis, which 
finally confirmed and consummated that judicious measure, 
and at length convinced Great Britain that Ireland would no 
longer submit to insult and domination, and had commenced 
a gradation of active proceedings of which the climax might 
ultimately, though unfortunately, produce a rupture of the 
connection. 

These resolutions were enforced with rigor and strictness. 
Few men, however their interest might be affected, would 
wantonly risk the imputation of being traitors to their coun- 
try and encounter the danger of popular retribution which 
was, in some few instances, actually inflicted. 

The nation now paused for a moment: it found itself 
prepared to commence its great work of constitutional regen- 
eration, and stood steadily and firmly watching with an 
anxious eye for the operation of this first overt act of deter- 
mined patriotism. The people had now ascended an eminence 
sufficiently elevated to give them a full view of their friends 
and of their enemies— they had peaceably hoisted the first 
standard and made the first proclamation of liberty. A 
mutual compact of the citizen to support the soldier, and the 
soldier to defend the citizen, formed a very remarkable fea- 
ture in all their resolutions— and though the military associa- 
tions had not (as such) yet assumed a deliberative capacity, 
it was obvious that their discretion alone had continued the 



In the Days of Grattan 325 

distinction— and that, tliougli they spoke by two tongues, 
there was in fact but one heart amongst the people. 

This bold measure, however it may have been eclipsed by 
the more striking importance of events which succeeded each 
other in a rapid progression, yet had a momentous influence 
on the subsequent fate and policy of Ireland, and must be 
considered as the commencement of that interesting course of 
political transactions, which suddenly raised her to the high- 
est pitch of national pride and prosperity, and afterwards 
hurled her down the destructive precipice of misery and 
degradation. 

The spirited adoption and obstinate adherence of the Irish 
people to these resolutions now flashed as a new light in the 
eyes of the British administration. The power of the English 
statutes, which bound the commerce of Ireland, was by these 
resolutions almost at the same moment denied and demol- 
ished, without the aid of arms or tumult of insurrection, and 
the pride and power of Great Britain received that warning 
blow which taught her what she had reason to expect from a 
further perseverance in her favorite system. The Ministry 
were astonished. The arm of usurpation, which had so long 
wielded alternately the sword and commanded the coffer, fell 
paralyzed and lifeless by the side of the usurpers. But the 
fate of empires is governed by the same fatality as the check- 
ered life of individuals; and this very measure, which so 
auspiciously and proudly asserted, and the events which 
afterwards so completely acquired the constitutional inde- 
pendence and commercial freedom of Ireland, will be found 
the ulterior pretence for revoking those great acquirements. 
England, compelled to concede, was determined to reclaim, 
and from the first hours of reluctant concession pursued that 
deep and insidious system which will be fully traced and 
developed in the course of Irish transactions, and will be 
found conspicuously active from the commercial tariff of 
1784 through every stage of the regency and the rebellion, 
to the completion of that measure entitled a legislative Union 
between the two countries. 

The Volunteer associations of the metropolis soon per- 
ceived that however numerous their force and extensive their 
popularity it required some strong link of connection to unite 
military bodies so entirely distant and independent of each 



326 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

other, who acknowledged no superior to their respective com- 
manders and no control but voluntary obedience. 

To secure their unanimity, perhaps even their permanence, 
it required some consolidating authority whose weight might 
restrain within proper limits the uncontrolled spirits of a 
body assuming the double capacity of a soldier and of a 
citizen. 

This essential object could only be attained by the selec- 
tion of some high and dignified personage, whose rank and 
character, rising beyond the reach of common competition, 
might unite together, under one common chief, that diversity 
of views and objects which must ever distract the proceedings 
of detached associations. 

The Volunteers of Dublin saw clearly that military bodies, 
however laudable their views, must be more than commonly 
subject to the fallibility of human institutions, and that to 
have the effect and impetus of an army they must submit 
themselves fully to its control and organization. 

They did not, however, long hesitate in their choice of a 
commander. Every eye seemed to turn, by general instinct, 
on William, Duke of Leinster. His family from the earliest 
periods had been favorites of the people. He had himself, 
when Marquis of Kildare, been the popular representative of 
Dublin ; he was the only Duke of Ireland ; his disposition and 
his address combined almost every quality which could en- 
dear him to the nation. The honesty of his heart might 
occasionally mislead the accuracy of his judgment, but he 
always intended right, and his political errors usually sprung 
from the principle of moderation. 

This amiable Nobleman was therefore unanimously 
elected by the armed bodies of the metropolis their General, 
and was immediately invested with all the honors of so high 
a situation ; a guard of Volunteers was mounted at his door, 
a bodyguard appointed to attend him on public occasions, 
and sentinels placed in his box when he honored the theater. 
He was followed with acclamations whenever he appeared, 
and something approaching to regal honors attended his 
investiture. 

This was the first measure of the Volunteers towards the 
formation of a regular army. Its novelty and splendor added 
greatly to its importance and led the way to the subsequent 
appointments which soon after completed their organization. 



In the Days of Grattan 327 

The mild and unassuming disposition of the Duke, tending 
by its example to restrain the over zeal of an armed and 
irritated nation, did not contribute much to increase the 
energy of their proceedings and at no distant period deprived 
him, for a moment, of a portion of that popularity which his 
conduct (with but little deviation) entitled him to, down to 
the last moments of his existence. 

A new scene now presented itself to the view of the British 
Minister, and embarrassed, to an unparalleled degree, every 
measure of the Irish administration. A regular army, com- 
posed of every rank of society, raised, armed, and disciplined 
in the midst of the metropolis, independent of the Crown, and 
unconnected with the Government, disdaining all authority of 
either over their military concerns, and under the eye of the 
Viceroy, appointing a commander in chief and avowing their 
determination to free their country or perish in its ruins, the 
standing army tame spectators of this extraordinary spec- 
tacle and almost participating in the flame which they might 
be called upon to extinguish, the Government, irresolute and 
shrinking within the Castle, not only tolerated but even 
affected to countenance this unparalleled procedure. The 
new commander of the Volunteers was received and recog- 
nized by the public authorities, and the regular soldiery at 
length involuntarily paid him the same military attentions as 
their own commanders. 

But though the Government, from policy, affected to bear 
the sight with complacency and patience, they reflected, with 
the deepest solicitude, on the situation of the country, and 
secretly made every effort to divide or weaken the military 
associations. Every device was used to seduce the soldier 
from his officers, or to detach the most popular officers from 
the command of the soldiers. The one was offered commis- 
sions and pay from the Crown, the other offices in the public 
departments. No scheme was left untried; no means were 
forgotten to achieve this object; but it was all in vain. The 
spirit of the people was then too high, and their patriotism 
too ardent to admit of such negotiation, and every attempt 
became not only futile but also gave an additional strength to 
the measures and declarations of the people. 

The appointment of the Duke of Leinster to the command 
of the Volunteers of the metropolis was quickly followed by 
that of other district generals, and the organization of four 



328 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

provincial armies was regularly proceeded on. The country 
gentlemen of the highest consideration and largest fortune 
vied with each other in their efforts to promote it; many 
leading members of the Irish Parliament were individually 
active in promoting the common object, and from single corps 
were soon collected county regiments and provincial armies 
ready to take the field at the command of their officers, and 
to sacrifice their lives and their properties for the emancipa- 
tion of their country. 

Still, however, something was wanting to complete their 
organization. Provincial armies had been formed and dis- 
ciplined, but still these armies were independent of each other. 
There was no general head to put the whole in motion— no 
individual to whom all would own obedience, and such an 
appointment seemed indispensably essential to secure their 
co-operation. 

But this was a task more serious and more difficult than 
had yet occurred. Where could be foimd the man whose 
integrity was incorruptible, whose wisdom was profound, 
whose courage was invincible, yet whose moderation was con- 
spicuous, and whose popularity was extensive? Ireland could 
not boast a Washington, yet so critical was her situation at 
that moment that a combination of all these qualities seemed 
to be requisite in the person to whom should be entrusted the 
guidance of eighty thousand patriot soldiers. Such a per- 
sonage was not to be discovered, and it was only left to the 
Volunteers to select the purest character of that day, and 
leave his guidance to the councils less of the concurring than 
of the counteracting qualities of the inferior commanders. 

Public affairs in Ireland now began to wear a serious and 
alarming aspect. The Leinster army appointed the Earl of 
Charlemont its commander in chief, and the other armies pro- 
ceeded rapidly to their organization. Provincial reviews were 
adopted and everything assumed the appearance of systematic 
movement. 

The elevation of Lord Charlemont to that high command, 
though it formed a more decided military establishment for 
the Volunteer army, was probably the very means of pre- 
serving the connection between the two countries. Had the 
same confidence and command been entrusted to a more ardent 
or ambitious character, it might have been difficult to calcu- 
late on the result of combining an intemperate leader with an 



In the Days of Gbattan 329 

impatient army, but the moderation of Lord Charlemont gave 
a tone and a steadiness to the proceedings of the people which 
might otherwise have pointed to a distinct independence. 
His character had long preceded his elevation. In the north 
his influence was unlimited, and though the Southern and 
Western Volunteers had not as yet consolidated their force 
with the other provinces, they were in a high state of disci- 
pline and preparation, and soon adopted the same principles, 
which the appointment of the Earl of Charlemont had now 
diffused through the other parts of the Nation. 

From the first moment that James, Earl of Charlemont, 
embarked in Irish politics, he proved himself to be one of the 
most honest and dignified personages that can be traced in the 
annals of Irish history. The love of his country was inter- 
woven with his existence; their union was complete, their 
separation impossible ; but his talents were rather of the con- 
ducting class, and his wisdom of a deliberative nature. His 
mind was more pure than vigorous ; more elegant than power- 
ful, and his capacity seemed better adapted to counsel in 
peace than to command in war. 

Though he was not devoid of ambition, and was proud of 
his popularity, his principles were calm, and his moderation 
predominant. For some years at the head of a great army in 
the heart of a powerful people, in the hand of an injured na- 
tion, during the most critical epoch that a kingdom ever ex- 
perienced, he conducted the Irish nation with incredible tem- 
perance and, in the midst of tempests, he flowed on in an 
unruffled stream, fertilizing the plain of liberty and enlarg- 
ing the channel of independence, but too smooth and too gentle 
to turn the vast machinery of revolution. 

His view of political objects, though always honest, was 
frequently erroneous. Small objects sometimes appeared too 
important and great ones too hazardous. Though he would 
not actually temporize, he could be seduced to hesitate; yet, 
even when his decision was found wandering from the point 
of its destination, it was invariably discoverable that discre- 
tion was the seducer. 

Had the unwise pertinacity of England persisted in her 
errors, and plunged his country into more active contest, his 
mildness, his constitution and his love of order would have 
unadapted him to the vicissitudes of civil commotion, or the 
energetic promptitude of military tactics; but fortunately 



330 Ieeland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the adoption of his counsels rendered his sword unnecessary ; 
and by the selection of one man, to combat for the liberties 
of Ireland, he raised a youthful champion for his country 
Tvhose sling soon leveled the giant of usurpation, and he 
wound a laurel round the bust of the deliverer, which will 
remain unfaded till the very name of Ireland shall be oblit- 
erated from amongst nations. 

His indisposition to the extent of Catholic liberty, nour- 
ished by the prejudice of the times, was diminished by the 
patriotism of the people. The Catholics of 1780 preferred 
their country to the claims, as those of 1800, preferred their 
claims to their country, and amongst that people he gained by 
his honesty what he lost by his intolerance and lived just 
long enough to experience and to mourn the fallibility of his 
predictions. ' 

Around this Nobleman the Irish Volunteers flocked as 
around a fortress ; the standard of liberty was supported by 
his character; the unity of the Empire was protected by his 
wisdom; and as if Providence had attached him to the des- 
tinies of Ireland, he arose— he flourished— and he sunk with 
his country. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER V. 

HUMILIATION OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT— THE VOLUNTEERS 

GATHER STRENGTH. 

The British Government at length awakened from their 
slumbers; their dreams of power and security now vanished 
before the view of their increasing dangers. A reliance on 
the omnipotence of English power, at all times chimerical, 
would now have been presumptuous. The Irish nation, to 
whose bravery and whose blood the victories and conquests of 
Britain had been so eminently indebted, now called impera- 
tively for their own rights and demanded a full participation 
of that constitution in support of which they had daily sacri- 
ficed so great a proportion of their treasure and their popu- 
lation. 

The Irish soldier and the Irish seaman could never be sup- 
posed to remain unfeeling spectators whilst their own country 
was struggling for its dearest liberties, or become the mer- 
cenary instruments of their own subjugation. Even their 
indisposition to the British service would have reduced the 
armies and navy to debility, but their defections would have 
been fatal to the power of Great Britain, and have enabled 
Ireland irresistibly to effect her total independence. The 
balance of Europe was likely to undergo a great change ; the 
improvident attachment to continental politics almost exclu- 
sively engrossed the attention of England ; and the completion 
of a mercenary league with a petty potentate of a Germanic 
principality, inferior even to one Irish county, was considered 
of more importance by the British Cabinet, than all the mis- 
eries, the dangers, and oppressions of Ireland. But the Brit- 
ish Government now perceived their error, when it was too 
late to temporize; and that arrogance, which for centuries 
had hardly condescended to hear groans, was now startled 
into attention. 

Affairs now approached fast towards a crisis. The free- 
dom of commerce being the subject most familiar and compre- 
hensible to the ideas of the people, was the first object of their 
solicitude. ''A Free Trade" became the watchword of the 
Volunteers and the cry of the Nation. The Dublin Volunteer 

331 



332 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Artillery appeared on parade, commanded by James Napper 
Tandy, with labels on the mouths of their cannon of '^Free 
Trade or Speedy Eevolution"; placards were pasted up in 
every part of the city to the same effect, until the determined 
proceedings of all ranks and classes of the people, connected 
with the operation of the non-important agreements, left no 
further room for ministerial procrastination. 

The British Minister now became alarmed, and trembled 
for the consequences of his political intolerance. He had no 
passage to retreat by and after every struggle which circum- 
stances could admit of, the British Cabinet at length came 
to a resolution, that '^something must be done to tranquilize 
Ireland." The King was informed of their determination, 
and was prevailed upon to accede to it. His Majesty had re- 
ceived a severe shock by the unexpected events of the Ameri- 
can contest, and the additional mortification of compulsory 
concessions to Ireland was little calculated to tranquilize his 
feelings. However, absolute necessity required his acquies- 
ence and it was finally determined, by the executive Power of 
Great Britain, to adopt means if not altogether to satisfy, at 
least to conciliate and to concede considerably to Ireland. 

From this determination, the affairs in the British Empire 
began to wear a new aspect; the day was fast approaching 
when England, for the first time, must condescend to acknowl- 
edge her own errors, and in the face of Europe, to humble 
herself before a people, who had for six centuries been the 
slaves of her power rather than the subjects of her affection. 

Lord North had now a more difficult task to perform than 
he at first conceived, to recant his avowed principles, to hum- 
ble the pride of his own country, and submit to the justice of 
another, and above all, to justify his own conduct, which had 
reduced both countries to that state which required those con- 
cessions ; an awful lesson to all Governments, how cautiously 
they should arrogate to themselves a dominion, of which the 
basis was power and the superstructure injustice. 

But all subterfuge had ended, and on the 24th of Novem- 
ber, 1782, his Majesty ascended the throne to proclaim his 
first substantial act of grace to the Irish nation, and to call 
the immediate attention of his British Parliament to the situa- 
tion of that country, but his Majesty obviously insinuated that 
his attention to Ireland was attracted by a consideration for 
the safety of Great Britain and that the benefits to be extended 



In thk Days of Grattan 333 

to Ireland should be only such as would be for the common in- 
terest, not of Ireland abstractedly, but of all his dominions, 
and by that very act of conceding to Ireland, he virtually as- 
serted the supremacy of the British Parliament. 

This speech was immediately attended to by the British 
Parliament ; the opposition received it as a triumph over the 
Minister, and gladly acceded to a declaration which pro- 
claimed the imbecility and misconduct of the Cabinet. An 
actual insurrection in Ireland— the certain consequence of 
further inattention— would have certainly deprived the Min- 
ister of his station, and perhaps eventually of his head. 

A coincidence of events thus united two hostile interests 
in one honest object; and Ireland was destined to receive, 
through the ambition of one party, and the error of another, 
those rights which she had so long in vain solicited from their 
justice. 

This speech was immediately followed by the measures 
recommended by his Majesty, and the same Parliament which 
had so repeatedly withheld the just rights of Ireland, now 
thought that they could not too hastily accede to her claims ; 
and hardly a day was omitted, till the proposed arrangement 
was proceeded on. 

Messages were sent over to Ireland to announce the happy 
tidings to the people, and emissaries were dispersed over 
every part of the kingdom, to blazon the liberality and justice 
of Great Britain. 

The Minister, however, justly suspecting, that so soon as 
the paroxysm of Irish gratitude, for this unaccustomed con- 
descension should subside, and give way to calm reflection, 
that nation could not avoid perceiving, that until their consti- 
tution became independent, and that the usurpation of 
England should be altogether acknowledged, these favors 
could have no stability, and might be revoked at a more favor- 
able opportunity, by the same authority which originally con- 
ceded them. 

To obviate these feelings, the Minister continued the Com- 
mittee on Irish affairs open from time to time, now and then 
passing a resolution in favor of that country, and thus en- 
deavoring to wear out the session, which he no doubt, intended 
should terminate his favors. 

The whole nation at length perceived the duplicity of 
proceedings which, while they purported to extend benefits 



334 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

to Ireland, asserted the paramount authority of Great Britain, 
and converted its acts of concession into declaratory statutes 
of its own supremacy. 

Eeasoning of this nature soon made a deep impression 
on the public mind, and meetings were held throughout the 
kingdom to declare the national feeling on this important 
subject ; fourteen counties at once avowed their determination 
to tear down these barriers which excluded them from a full 
participation of the British constitution, and to establish at 
the risk of their lives and fortunes, the independence of the 
Irish legislature, beyond the power of British re-assumption. 

This spirit and this determination spread themselves uni- 
versally amongst the people; the cry of ''Free Trade" was 
now accompanied with that of "Free Parliament," and that 
patriotic enthusiasm which had so effectually asserted the 
commerce of Ireland, now arose with double vigor to assert 
its constitution. 

The Volunteer army, in the meantime, rapidly advanced 
in discipline and numbers; the success which had attended 
this first effort of their steadiness acted as a powerful incite- 
ment to the continuation of their exertion; they felt, with 
exultation, that at the very time they were in arms, without 
the authority of the Crown, or control of their Sovereign, his 
Majesty, from his throne, condescended to pass unqualified 
eulogiums on the loyalty and fidelity of the people; expres- 
sions which, if considered with reference to the King, were 
gracious ; but with reference to the Grovernment, which framed 
them, were clearly intended as an anodyne to lull that spirit 
which durst not be encountered. 

Provincial reviews of the Volunteer armies were now 
adopted, and a more regular staff appointed to the general 
officers ; new trains of artillery were formed ; that of Belfast 
was brought to considerable perfection. Earl Charlemont 
was called on to review the Northern army; on his tour he 
was attended by many persons of the highest distinction, and 
his suite had all the appearance of military dignity and na- 
tional importance. His Lordship returned to review the 
Leinster corps in Dublin. His aides-de-camp were men of the 
highest character and of the first ability. Barry Yelverton, 
Hussey Burgh and Mr. Grattan, were on his staff. 

The Volunteer army had acquired the discipline of an 
efficient force, and at that period amounted to above eighty 



In the Days of Grattan 335 

thousand soldiers, ready for actual service, aided by the zeal, 
the prayers, and the co-operation of nearly five millions un- 
armed inhabitants. 

The British Government, which had supposed that enough 
had been done, if not to satisfy, at least somewhat to disunite 
the Irish people, now perceived how ill they had calculated 
on the character of that nation, and felt, with pain and dis- 
appointment, the futility of their designs, and the feebleness 
of their authority. 

Grave and most important circumstances now opened to 
the public view, and imperatively concurred to put the con- 
stitutional claims of Ireland directly in issue with the British 
legislature. 

The army in Ireland had been under the regulations of a 
British statute, and the hereditary revenue of the Crown 
with the aid of a perpetual mutiny bill, enabled the British 
Government to command at all times a standing army in Ire- 
land, without the authority or the control of its Parliament. 

This unconstitutional power, hitherto almost unnoticed in 
Ireland now that the principles of liberty had been dissemi- 
nated amongst the people, and that an independent army of 
Irishmen had been organized, became a subject of general 
dissatisfaction. Some patriotic magistrates determined to 
make a stand upon that point, and to bring the legality of the 
British statutes, as operating in Ireland, into issue, through 
the medium of their own conduct, in refusing to obey them. 

To effect this measure, they determined to resist the au- 
thority of the British mutiny act, and by refusing to billet 
soldiers, under the provisions of that statute, solicited com- 
plaints against themselves, for the purpose of trying the 
question. 

This measure would at once have put Ireland and the 
usurpation of Great Britain in direct issue; but the Irish 
judges were then dependent upon the Crown ; they held their 
offices during pleasure only; judges might differ with the 
juries, the people with them both, and the result of a trial 
of such a question in such a way, was considered by all parties 
as too precarious to hazard the experiment. 

The career of independence, however, proceeded with irre- 
sistible impetuosity ; a general feeling arose that a crisis was 
fast approaching, when the true principles of the Irish con- 
stitution must be decisively determined. 



336 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Though the regular forces and the Volunteer army were 
on the most amicable terms, yet jealousies might eventually 
be widened into a breach, pregnant with. the most disastrous 
consequences. This was an extremity the Viceroy determined 
to avoid, and orders were issued to the army to show every 
possible mark of respect to the Volunteers; their officers re- 
ceived the usual military salute from the regular soldiers, 
and at the request of the Volunteers a few troops of cavalry 
were ordered by the Lord Lieutenant to assist in keeping the 
Volunteer lines at a review in the Phoenix Park. But an 
accidental circumstance some time afterwards occurred, which 
showed the necessity for cultivating that cordiality, on the 
continuation of which the tranquillity of the nation so entirely 
depended. 

Lieutenant Doyne, of the second regiment of Plorse, march- 
ing to relieve the guards in Dublin Castle at the head of the 
cavalry, came accidentally on Essex Bridge, directly at right 
angles with a line of Volunteer infantry commanded by Lord 
Altamont. An instant embarrassment took place; one party 
must halt or the other could not pass ; neither would recede— 
etiquette seemed likely to get the better of prudence— the 
cavalry advanced; the Volunteers continued their progress 
till they were nearly in contact ; never did a more critical mo- 
ment exist in Ireland. Had one drop of blood been shed, 
through the impetuosity of either officer, even in that silly 
question of precedence, the Irish Volunteers would have beat 
to arms, from north to south, in every part of the kingdom, 
and British connection would certainly have been shaken to its 
very foundation. 

As the cavalry advanced, Lord Altamont commanded his 
corps to continue their march, and incline their bayonets, so 
as to be ready to defend their line. The cavalry officer, wisely 
reflecting, that by the pause even of a single moment, every 
possibility of disagreement would be obviated, halted his men 
for an instant ; the Volunteers passed on, and the affair ended 
without further difficulty. 

This circumstance, however trivial, was quickly circulated, 
and increased the public clamor. Eesolutions were entered 
into by almost every military corps, and every corporate body, 
that they would no longer obey any laws, save those enacted by 
the Kings, Lords, and Commons of Ireland; and this spirit 
gradually embraced the whole population, till at length it 



In the Days of Grattan 337 

ended in the celebrated resolutions of Dungannon, which, es- 
tablished the short lived independence of the nation. 

William, Duke of Leinster, had long been the favorite and 
the patron of the Irish people, and never did the physiogno- 
mist enjoy a more fortunate elucidation of his science; the 
softness of philanthropy, the placidity of temper, the openness 
of sincerity, the sympathy of friendship, and the ease of in- 
tegrity, stamped corresponding impressions on his artless 
countenance, and left but little to conjecture as to the compo- 
sition of his character. 

His elevated rank and extensive connections gave him a 
paramount lead in Irish politics, which his marked talents 
would not otherwise have justified; though his capacity was 
respectable, it was not brilliant, and his abilities were not 
adapted to the highest class of political pre-eminence. On 
public subjects his conduct sometimes wanted energy, and 
his pursuits perseverance; in some points he was weak, and 
in some instances erroneous, but in all he was honest; from 
the day of his maturity to the moment of his dissolution he 
was the undeviating friend of the Irish nation ; he considered 
its interests and his own indissolubly connected ; alive to the 
oppressions and miseries of the people, his feeling heart par- 
ticipated in their misfortunes, and felt the smart of every 
lash which the scourge of power inflicted on his country. As 
a soldier and as a patriot he performed his duties, and in his 
plain and honorable disposition was found collected a happy 
specimen of those qualities which best compose the character 
of an Irish gentleman. 

He took an early and active part in promoting the forma- 
tion and discipline of the Volunteer associations; he raised 
many corps and commanded the Dublin Army. The ancient 
celebrity of his family, the vast extent of his possessions, and 
his affability in private intercourse, co-operated with his own 
popularity in extending his influence, and few persons ever 
enjoyed a more general and merited influence amongst the 
Irish people. 

The Irish Catholics, at this period, were much attached 
to the Geraldines, and pursued a conduct so meritorious that 
even the bitterest enemies of that body acknowledged the un- 
common merit of their conduct ; their open friends multiplied, 
their secret enemies diminished, and they gradually worked 
themselves into the favor and confidence of their Protestant 
countrymen, though loaded with severe restrictions, though 



338 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

imt out of the pale of the British constitution, and groaning 
under the most cruel and unjust oppression, they were active 
and patriotic; they forgot the tyranny under which they 
groaned, and only felt the chains which fettered and op- 
pressed their country ; a general union of all sects seemed to 
be cementing ; the animosity of ages was sinking into oblivion, 
and it was reserved for the incendiaries of a later period to 
revive that barbarous sectarian discord; a weapon, without 
which the British Government would have ever found Ireland 
too proud for the influence of power, and too strong for the 
grasp of annexation. 

The doctrine of pure democracy was then but a weak 
exotic, to which the heat of civil war in America had given 
the principle of vegetation. In Ireland it was uncongenial to 
the minds, and unadapted to the character of the people ; and 
during the whole progress of those events, which preceded the 
attainment of Irish independence, its progress was only ob- 
servable in the intimate association of the distant ranks in 
military bodies, and the idea of a revolution never extended 
further than to attain the undisturbed enjoyment of a free 
Parliament and to remove forever the ascendency of the 
British Government over the crown of Ireland. 

Notwithstanding all these occurrences, the British people, 
in their nature jealous and egotistical, still remained obsti- 
nately blind to the true state of Ireland enjoying the blessings 
of independence, under a resident monarch and an unfettered 
Parliament ; they felt interested only in their own aggrandize- 
ment; their solicitude extended only to their own concerns; 
and without reflecting that the same advantages which they 
so liberally possessed, were denied to Ireland, they attributed 
the uneasiness of that nation rather to innate principles of 
disaffection, than the natural result of misery and oppression. 

Every element of a free constitution had been torn away 
by the rough hand of a foreign legislature, enacting laws, to 
which the representatives of the Irish people were utter 
strangers. Yet this usurpation had been sanctioned by the 
dictum of a British judge, who added to his reputation, by 
giving an unqualified opinion for Irish slavery. 

The salaries of the judges of Ireland were then barely 
sufficient to keep them above want, and they held their offices 
only during the will of the British Minister, who might remove 
them at his pleasure; all Irish justice, therefore, was at his 
control. In all questions between the Crown and the people, 



In the Days of Grattan 339 

tlie purity of the judge was consequently suspected; if he 
could not be corrupted, he might be cashiered, the dignity of 
his office was lost in his dependence, and he was reduced to 
the sad alternative of poverty or dishonor; nor was this 
grievance lessened by many of the judges being sent over 
from England, prejudiced against the Irish, and unacquainted 
with their customs. 

The Irish Parliament at this period, met but once in two 
years, and in the British Attorney General was vested the 
superintendence of their proceedings, and in the British 
Privy Council, the alteration and rejection of their statutes; 
and the declaration or ruin of her commerce was at least a 
matter of indifference, if not of triumph, to the British mo- 
nopolists. 

These grievances, in themselves almost intolerable, were 
greatly aggravated by the abuses which had been creeping 
into the executive and legislative department of the British 
Government, and infected every proceeding adopted as to 
Ireland. 

However, the British Government found that resistance 
had now become impossible, and something more must be 
done. The Irish Viceroy, therefore, was instructed to act 
according to the best of his judgment. Accordingly, on the 
9th of October, 1781, he, for the first time met the Irish Par- 
liament with a speech from the throne; which, though re- 
ceived with great cordiality by the House, upon a close inves- 
tigation, appears a composition of the most Jesuitical sophis- 
try; it complimented the country on a prosperity which it 
never enjoyed; expressed a solicitude for its interest which 
was never experienced, and promised future favors, which 
were never intended to be conceded, and was mingled, at the 
same time with recommendations the most vague, and obser- 
vations the most frivolous. The good temper of the House, 
however, was so excited by the cordial assurances it con- 
tained, it was received with great approbation, and Mr. John 
O'Neill, of Shane's Castle, the first Commoner of Ireland, 
was very wisely prevailed upon, by the Secretary, to move 
an address of thanks to his Majesty for this gracious com- 
munication of his minister with a view that the weight and 
character of this gentleman might excite that unanimity at 
the present crisis so very desirable, and which must be so 
highly advantageous to the Irish Government. 

Mr. John O'Neill, descended from the most celebrated 



340 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

chieis of ancient Ireland, bore in his portly and graceful mien 
indications of a proud and illustrious pedigree; the generous 
openness of his countenance, the grandeur of his person, and 
the affability of his address, marked the dignity of his char- 
acter, and blending with the benevolence of his disposition, 
formed him one of the first Commoners of the Irish nation, 
a rank from which he so unfortunately sunk, by humbling his 
name to the level of purchased peerages, and descending from 
the highest bench of the Commons to the lowest among the 
Nobles. 

In public and in private life Mr. O'Neill was equally cal- 
culated to command respect, and conciliate affection; high 
minded, open, and well educated, he clothed the sentiments 
of a patriot in all the language of a gentleman; his abilities 
were moderate, but his understanding was sound ; unsuspect- 
ing, because he was himself incapable of deception, he too 
frequently trusted to the judgment of others, that conduct 
which would have been far more respectably regulated by his 
own; though he did not shrink from the approbation of the 
courts he preferred the applauses of his country, and formed 
one of the most perfect models of an aristocratic patriot. 

This step, however, was instantly succeeded by a measure, 
which did honor to the patriotic spirit of Mr. O'Neill, and pre- 
served his character in that station, from which it might have 
sunk had he concluded his observations, by the fulsome and 
indecisive address which he had so injudiciously patronized. 

As soon as the address to his Majesty has passed, Mr. 
O'Neill moved a resolution of thanks to "all the Volunteers 
of Ireland for their exertions and continuance." This mo- 
tion was received with exultation by the opposition and cre- 
ated a new embarrassment to the Minister. To return thanks 
to an independent army for their exertions and continuance, 
which acknowledged no military superiority, and called, with 
arms in their hands, upon their Irish king to restore their 
civil rights and plundered constitution, was a step, undoubt- 
edly, not warranted by precedent, but prompt decision was 
necessary, and the then Mr. John Fit^gibbon, in one of the 
first efforts of that decided but inconsiderate impetuosity 
which distinguished him throughout life, harshly opposed Mr. 
'Neill 's motion, but by endeavoring to support the Govern- 
ment he deeply embarrassed it ; and Mr. Scott, the Attorney 
General, on that occasion showed, in his strongest colors the 
advantages of well regulated policy. He instantly acceded 



I 



In the Days of Grattan 341 

to wliat he could not oppose, and gave an api^earance of full 
approbation on the part of the Government, to an address of 
thanks to those men, whom nothing but that political duplicity 
which he so amply possessed, could have induced him to con- 
sent to. 

[A-11 opposition to the motion, therefore, fell to the ground. 
Mr. Fitzgibbon, who, however, never relinquished an object, 
from a conviction of its impropriety, though he persisted in 
his opposition, was reluctantly necessitated to give way, and 
an address to the armed Volunteers of Ireland was unani- 
mously voted, and directed to be circulated throughout all 
Ireland, and to be communicated by the Sheriffs of the coun- 
ties to the corps within their bailiwicks. 

Never had a measure been adopted which gave so sudden 
and singular a change to the aspect of affairs in Ireland. It 
seemed to reverse all the maxims of former Governments, 
and gave to the people an ascendency they had never expected. 
It legalized a military levy, independent of the Sovereign, and 
obliged the Ministers to applaud the exertions and court the 
continuance of an army whose dispersion was the leading 
object of all their councils. 

This resolution made a considerable progress towards the 
actual emancipation of the Irish people ; it brought down the 
British Government to the feet of the Volunteers, and raised 
the Volunteers above the supremacy of Britain, by a direct 
Parliamentary approbation of self-armed, self-governed, and 
self -disciplined associations, whose motto bespoke the funda- 
mental principle of revolution of which England had given 
the precedent. 

It also taught the people the strength of their own arms 
and the timidity of their opponents. They perceived, by the 
unanimous adoption of this resolution, that the people had 
only to march, and as certainly to conquer. It was, in fact, a 
flag of truce from the Minister, and proved to the world, that 
unable to contend he was preparing to capitulate. 

In reflecting on the circumstances which led the Govern- 
ment to this concession, observations on the moral and phys- 
ical strength of the nation must naturally occur. The IrisK 
nation, saturated with patriotic spirit, by a union of its men- 
tal and corporeal energies, had united in its narrow focus 
all the moral and physical powers of which a people are 
susceptible. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE CONVENTION AT DUNGANNON — THE DECLARATION OF IRISH 

RIGHTS. 

An explicit and detailed declaration of the people 's rights 
was now demanded in every part of the nation; the press 
teemed with publications on the subjects best calculated to 
call patriotism into activity ; the doctrines of Swift, of Moly- 
neux, and of Lucas, were re-published in abstract pamphlets 
and placed in the hands of every man who could read them ; 
their principles were recognized and disseminated; the Irish 
mind became enlightened, and a revolution in literature was 
made auxiliary to a revolution in liberty. 

Delegates from all the armed bodies of the people were 
regularly appointed by their respective corps, and met, for 
the purpose of giving additional weight and importance to 
their resolves, by conjointly declaring their sentiments and 
their determination. These meetings, first confined to dis- 
tricts, soon multiplied, and extended themselves to the coun- 
ties ; thence to provinces, and at length to the united nation ; 
their deliberations became regular and public, and their reso- 
lutions decisive, and at length the celebrated convention at 
Dungannon was convoked, which formed a most remarkable 
incident of Irish history, and one of the wisest and most tem- 
perate measures, that ever signalized the good sense, good 
conduct and the spirit of a people. 

The northern counties of Ireland, though not more spirited, 
more regular and more intelligent than the other provinces, 
took the lead in this celebrated meeting. The armed asso- 
ciations of Ulster first appointed delegates, to declare the sen- 
timents of their province, in a general assembly ; and, on the 
15th day of February, 1782, one of the most solemn and im- 
pressive scenes which Ireland had ever witnessed, took place 
in the inconsiderable town of Dungannon. 

There were comparatively but few Roman Catholics in the 
northern counties of Ireland, and still fewer of the strictly 
Protestant religion. The population of Ulster was principally 
Dissenters, a people differing in character from the aboriginal 
inhabitants, fond of reform, and not hostile to equality, ex- 

343 



344 Ireland's Ckown of Thorns and Roses 

amining the constitution by its theory and seeking a recur- 
rence to original principles, prone to intolerancy, without 
being absolutely intolerants, and disposed to republicanism, 
without being absolutely republicans ; of Scottish origin, they 
partook of many of the peculiarities of that hard people; 
penetrating, harshminded, persevering, selfish, frugal; by 
their industry they acquired individual, and by individual 
political independence; as brave, though less impetuous than 
the western and southern Irish, they are more invariably for- 
midable; less slaves to their passions than to their interests, 
their habits are generally temperate, their dress quaint, blunt, 
and ungracious, their dialect harsh and disagreeable, their 
persons hardy and vigorous. With these qualities the north- 
ern Irish convoked, delegates from twenty-five thousand sol- 
diers to proclaim the sentiments of the Irish people. 

This celebrated meeting was conducted with decorum, firm- 
ness and discretion unknown to the popular meetings of other 
times and of other countries. Steady, silent and determined, 
two hundred delegated Volunteers, clothed in the uniform and 
armed with the arms of their respective regiments, marched, 
two and two, to the Church of Dungannon, a place selected 
for the sanctity of nature, to give the greater solemnity to this 
memorable proceeding. 

The entrance of the delegates into that sacred place was 
succeeded by an awful silence, which pervaded the whole 
assembly; the glittering arms of two hundred patriots, for 
the first time selected by their countrymen, to proclaim the 
wrongs and grievances of the people, was in itself a scene so 
uncommon and so interesting, that many of those men, who 
were ready in a moment to shed the last drop of their blood 
in the cause of their country as soldiers, were softened into 
tears, while contemplatively they surveyed that assembly, in 
which they were about to pledge themselves to measures irre- 
vocably committing Ireland to a conflict with her sister nation 
— the result of which must determine the future fate of them- 
selves, their children, and their country. 

This memorable assemblage of patriotism and discretion, 
whose proceedings soon became a theme of eulogium through- 
out every nation of Europe, was composed of men not of an 
ordinary description, they were generally persons of much 
consideration— selected for character and abilities— many of 
them persons of high rank and large fortune, some of them 



In the Days of Grattan 345 

members of Parliament, and all of them actuated by one heart, 
filled with one spirit, and determined upon one precedure. 

Amongst those who, at this meeting, first distinguished 
themselves, was Mr. Francis Dobbs, who afterwards became 
a person of singular reputation, the mere incidents of whose 
life have nothing to engage diffusely the pen of an historian ; 
no great transitions of rank, no deep depressions, no unex- 
pected elevation, no blaze of genius, no acts of heroism dis- 
tinguished his moderate and peaceable progress through the 
world, but the extraordinary bent of his understanding, and 
the whimsical, though splendid extravagances of his eccentric 
mind introduced him into a notice which the common exercises 
of his talent would never have affected. 

Francis Dobbs was a gentleman of respectable family but 
of moderate fortune, he had been educated for the bar, where 
he afterwards acquired some reputation as a constitutional 
lawyer, and much as a zealous advocate, but his intellect was of 
an extraordinary description; he seemed to possess two dis- 
tinct minds, the one adapted to the duties of his profession and 
the usual offices of society ; the other, diverging from its nat- 
ural centre, led him through wilds and ways, rarely frequented 
by the human understanding, entangled him in a maze of 
contemplative deduction from revelation to futurity, and fre- 
quently decoyed his judgment beyond the frontiers of reason. 
His singularities, however, seemed so separate from his sober 
judgment, that each followed its appropriate occupation with- 
out interruption from the other, and left the theologist and 
the prophet sufficiently distinct from the lawyer and the gen- 
tleman. 

There were but few virtues he did not, in some degree, 
partake of, nor were there any vices discernible in his disposi- 
tion; though obstinate and headstrong, he was gentle and 
philanthropic, and, with an ardent temper, he was inoffensive 
as an infant. 

By nature a patriot and an enthusiast, by science a lawyer 
and an historian, on common topics he was not singular, and 
on subjects of literature was informed and instructed; but 
there is sometimes a key in the human mind which cannot 
be touched without sounding those wild chords which never 
fail to interrupt the harmony of reason, and when expatiating 
on the subjects of antichrist and the millennium, his whole 
nature seemed to undergo a change, his countenance bright- 



346 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ened up as if by the complacent dignity of a prophetic spirit, 
his language became earnest, sometimes sublime, always ex- 
traordinary and not unfrequently extravagant. 

These doctrines, however, he made auxiliaries to his view 
of politics, and persuaded himself of its application to Ireland 
and the infallibility of his reasoning. Mankind has an eternal 
propensity to be seduced by the lure of new sects, and en- 
tangled in the trammels of inexplicable mysteries ; and prob- 
lems of theology, in their nature incapable of demonstration, 
are received with avidity by the greediness of superstition. 

Yet on these mysterious subjects Mr. Dobbs seemed to feel 
no difficulty, he devoted a great proportion of his time to 
the development of revelation, and attempted to throw strange 
and novel lights on divine prophecy. This was the string on 
which his reason seemed often to vibrate, and his position all 
tended to one extraordinary conclusion. 

''That Ireland was decreed by heaven lo remain forever 
an independent state, and was destined to the supernatural 
honor of receiving the antichrist"; and this he labored to 
prove from passages of Revelation. 

At the Dungannon meeting Mr. Dobbs first appeared as a 
delegate from the northern Volunteer corps, he was after- 
wards appointed a member of the national convention of Ire- 
land for the province of Ulster, and will be found throughout 
the whole course of Irish events, a distinguished and ardent 
advocate for the constitutional lights of the country. 

The deliberations of the Dungannon meeting were contin- 
ued for several days without interruption or intermission ; its 
discussions were calm and dignified, its resolutions firm, mod- 
erate, and patriotic. Every member of that assembly, on 
taking his seat in the awful hall felt the great importance and 
novelty of his delegation, as the elected representative of the 
united civil and military bodies, blending the distinct func- 
tions of the armed soldier and of the deliberative citizen, to 
protect his country against the still more unconstitutional 
coalescence of a mercenary army and an external legislature. 

Colonel Irwin, a northern gentleman of the highest re- 
spectability, of a discreet, moderate, and judicious though 
active, steady, and spirited character, was called to the chair 
by the unanimous voice of the assembly, and conducted him- 
self in that most important presidency, throughout the whole 
of the business, with a moderation and a decorum, which 



In the Days of Grattan 347 

always aid a cause, and never fail to give weight to the claims 
of a people. 

At length, on the 15th of February, 1782, this assembly 
finally framed and agreed upon that celebrated declaration of 
rights and of grievances, under which the Irish nation had 
so long been languishing, and announced to the world the sub- 
stantial causes by which its commerce had been so long re- 
strained, and every trace of a free constitution almost ob- 
literated. 

To give the complexion of constitutional legality to the 
unprecedented organization of this meeting, it was thought 
judicious to refer pointedly to the first principle of popular 
freedom universally admitted, established, and acted upon in 
England by the Revolution, namely, "the people's rights of 
preparatory resistance to unconstitutional oppression." The 
assembly therefore recognized that principle by its first reso- 
lution : ' ' That citizens, by learning the use of arms, abandon 
none of their civil rights," thereby asserting the otherwise 
questionable legality of a self -created military body, exercis- 
ing also the deliberative functions of a civil delegation, and 
boldly bottoming the assertion of that right upon the very 
same principle which the prince of Orange had used to usurp 
the throne of England, ' ' the popular expulsion of a tyrannical 
monarch. ' ' 

This resolution was also wisely adapted to check all legal 
proceedings, or even ministerial cavil, as to the constitution- 
ality of their meeting, by putting into direct issue with the 
British Government a previous question of right, which, if 
contested, must have drawn into public discussion and con- 
troversy the principles of the Eevolution and the very tenure 
of the Crown of England ; for the English nation had by that 
Revolution exploded the doctrine of passive obedience, and 
acting on that ground, had armed against their own sovereign, 
and put the sword of popular resistance into the hand of 
William, to cut away the allegiance of the Irish people even 
to his own father. 

The Dungannon meeting next proceeded to denounce, by 
subsequent resolutions, as altogether unconstitutional, illegal, 
and as grievances, all British legislation over Ireland, the law 
of Poyning, the restraint of Irish commerce, a permanent 
standing army in Ireland, the dependence of the superior 
judges on the crown, and consequently on the minister ; and 



348 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the assembly finally resolved to seek a redress of all those 
grievances, and invited the armed bodies of the other prov- 
inces of Ireland to unite with them in the glorious cause of 
constitutional regeneration. 

The most weighty grievances and claims of Ireland were by 
these means, in the mildest and simplest language without 
argument or unnecessary observation, consolidated into one 
plain and intelligible body of resolutions, entered into by dele- 
gates from twenty-five thousand Ulster soldiers, and backed 
by the voice of alDove a million of inhabitants of that prov- 
ince, combining together the moral and physical strength of 
one of the strongest quarters of Ireland, all actuated by a 
fixed and avowed determination to attain redress at every risk 
of life and fortune, and headed by the highest and most opu- 
lent gentlemen of that province, feeling the claims to be 
equally just and irresistible, and therefore not speculating on 
success without substantial grounds, or denouncing griev- 
ances without solid and just foundation. 

*' "Whereas it has been asserted that Volunteers, as such, 
cannot with propriety debate or give opinions on political sub- 
jects, or the conduct of parliaments or public men: 

''Resolved unanimously, That a citizen, by learning the 
use of arms, does not abandon any of his civil rights. 

''That a claim of any body of men, other than the King, 
Lords, and Commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind this 
kingdom, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a grievance. 

"That the power exercised by the privy council of both 
kingdoms, under pretence of the law of Poyning, is uncon- 
stitutional and a grievance. 

"That the ports of this country are by right open to all 
foreign countries, not at war with the King, and that any 
burthens thereupon, or obstructions thereto, save only by the 
parliament of Ireland, are unconstitutional, illegal and griev- 
ances. 

' ' That a mutiny bill, not limited in point of duration from 
session to session, is unconstitutional and a grievance. 

"That the independence of judges is equally essential to 
the impartial administration of justice in Ireland, as in Eng- 
land; and that the refusal or delay of this right to Ireland, 
makes a distinction where there should be no distinction ; may 
excite jealousy where perfect union should prevail ; and is in 
itself unconstitutional and a grievance. 



In the Days of Grattan 340 

''That this is our decided and unalterable determination 
to seek a redress of these grievances ; and we pledge ourselves 
to each other, and to our country, as freeholders, fellow-citi- 
zens, and men of honor, that we will, at every ensuing election, 
support those only who have supported us thereiu, and that 
we will use every constitutional means to make such our pur- 
suit of redress, speedy and effectual. 

''That as men, and as Irishmen, as Christians, and as 
Protestants, we rejoice in the relaxation of the penal laws 
against our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects ; and that we con- 
ceive the measure to be fraught with the happiest conse- 
quences to the union and prosperity of the inhabitants of Ire- 
land. 

' ' That four members from each county of the province of 
Ulster (eleven to be a quorum) be, and hereby are appointed, 
a committee till next general meeting, to act for the Vol- 
unteer corps here represented, and, as occasion shall require, 

call general meetings of the province. 

"That the said committee do appoint nine of their mem- 
bers to be a committee in Dublin, in order to communicate 
with such other Volunteer associations in the other provinces, 
as they may think proper to come to similar resolutions ; and 
to deliberate with them on the most constitutional means of 
carrying them into effect." 

The truth and simplicity of these resolutions, whilst they 
defied every imputation of party faction or of revolutionary 
disloyalty, yet convinced the minister that the Irish people 
would be no longer trifled with. By the firmness that was 
observed respecting them, the waverings were steadied, the 
too moderate roused, and the too ardent moderated, whilst 
the adverse were deterred by an anticipation of their success. 
Adapted to almost every class, and to the disposition of al- 
most every character, their effect through all Ireland was 
electric, and the consequence fully answered the most san- 
guine hopes, nay wishes, of their framers. 

Having passed these resolutions, the assembly adjourned, 
committing the further procedure to the coincidence and zeal 
of the other provinces of the nation; and, with a discretion 
almost unparalleled, a body of patriots, who might in one 
week have collected a military force, which all the power of 
England could not then have coped with, and, at the head of 
an irresistible army in a triumphant attitude, might have dic- 
tated their own terms to a trembling government, by their 



350 Ireland's Crown of Teiorns and Roses 

wise and temperate conduct avoided the horrors of a civil com- 
motion, and deliberately represented to Great Britain the 
grievances, which, by more hostile proceedings, they could 
by their own power have redressed in a moment. 

When a people are bold enough to throw off oppression, 
strong enough to resist it and wise enough to be unanimous, 
they must succeed. Oppression, though clothed in all the 
haughtiness of arbitrary po^er, is ever accompanied by the 
timidity of guilt. On the contrary a just resistance to tyranny, 
however feeble in its commencement, acquires strength in its 
progress, the stimulants of rising liberty, like the paroxysms 
of fever, often communicating a supernatural strength to a de- 
bilitated body. Ireland had arrived at that crisis, her natural 
vigor was rapidly surmounting the malignancy of her dis- 
order, and her dormant powers at once burst forth on an as- 
tonished empire, and an embarrassed administration. 

By this time the national armed force had greatly in- 
creased, not only in numbers, but in respectability, and had 
improved not only in discipline, but in all the military requi- 
sites for a regular and active army. 

About that period there were nearly ninety thousand sol- 
diers ready, armed, disciplined, and regimented, burning with 
impatience for the enjoyment of their liberties, not acting on 
a wild, enthusiastic impulse, but guided by reason and depend- 
ing on justice. The conduct of the British parliament had 
taught them the necessity of national unanimity, the whole 
population therefore were ready to be embodied if necessity 
required it, and in one month five hundred thousand active sol- 
diers might have been enrolled for service. They saw clearly 
that Great Britain, by the consolidation of her strength, had 
risen to that height of power, which alone protected her from 
her ambitious neighbors, and that, whilst she kept all her 
liberty at home for her own consumption, she was able to 
exercise despotic authority over every other quarter of the 
world, which she governed. It was therefore only by the same 
unanimity that Ireland could counteract her; and all the ca- 
pacities and talents which the Irish people possessed seemed 
to collect their united strength for the cause of their inde- 
pendence. 

They had now, by the constant discussions of political sub- 
jects in every rank of society, acquired a capacity of acute 
reasoning on constitutional controversies; their native elo- 
quence breaking forth at every meeting nourished their native 



In the Days of Grattan 351 

ardor, and almost every peasant became a public orator. 
''Kings" (said a private volunteer at one of those provincial 
assemblies in Leinster) ''are, we now perceive but human in- 
stitutions, Ministers are but human institutions, but Liberty 
is a right Divine, it is the earliest gift from heaven, the char- 
acter of our birthright, which human institutions can never 
cancel, without tearing down the first and best decree of the 
Omnipotent Creator." 

The pulpit, too, from which fanaticism was expelled, did 
not fail to become auxiliary to the general cause. Some dis- 
senting clergymen in the north of Ireland were particularly 
eloquent; a passage in one of their sermons deserves to be 

recorded. 

"My brethren and brother soldiers," said the pastor, "let 
US, by prayer and by humiliation supplicate heaven to grant 
our attainment of that liberty, without which life is but a 
prison, and society a place of bondage. Our tutelary provi- 
dence has permitted that blessing to be so long withheld from 
us by the corrupt and the unworthy only as a punishment for 
our past offences, and a trial for our future fortitude and per- 
severance. But the time of our expiation seems now to have 
been completed, a bright flame has blazed up amongst the 
people, and, in the hands of justice, lights them to the plains of 
Virtue and of Victory. The justice of our cause has drawn 
down that flame from a superior power, and we may well 
anticipate, that through its fire, the priests of Baal will soon 
perish before the altars of the Almighty." 

Almost every Irish gentleman had now either raised a mili- 
tary corps, or had enlisted himself in that of his neighbor. 
Some Eoman Catholic gentlemen also took to arms, and raised 
corps composed solely of persons of that persuasion, whilst 
many Protestants, relinquishing their prejudices, received 
their Catholic fellow-subjects into their ranks with cordiality, 
and the whole nation became almost as a single family. The 
most profound peace and good conduct signalized the lowest 
peasantry, the most perfect and effectual police was estab- 
lished, hardly a public crime of any kind was committed with- 
out instant detection, and every man of every rank seemed 
to have adopted one prominent and permanent principle, that 
of uniting good order, patriotism and firmness. 

The love of liberty, however, is often palled by enjoyment; 
the miseries of former oppression are sometimes forgotten in 
the views of avarice, or the pursuits of ambition, and there 



352 Irelaiid's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

are too many instances in history of sanguinary contests for 
the attainment of independence, and voluntary relapses into 
the fangs of tyranny. Human nature is subject to inconsis- 
tencies, and man cannot counteract the errors of his original 
formation; but when that inconsistency is the voluntary re- 
sult of depraved or corrupted principles, the weakness be- 
comes a vice, and the object disgusting. Nor can there be a 
stronger elucidation of this position, or a more painful com- 
parison of times and persons, than that which will occur in 
the progress of this narrative, where we shall discover the 
very same men who, in 1782, were foresmost in offering their 
lives and fortunes to attain the independence of their country, 
metamorphosed on the Union, eighteen years afterwards, into 
the veriest slaves of direct and shameless corruption, and pub- 
licly selling themselves, their connections and their country, 
for money, for office or for title. The individual proofs of 
this are numerous, indisputable and easily produced ; and the 
comparison will afford a wholesome lesson for states and 
nations to look with more caution and less confidence on the 
professions of public men, who too frequently remain no 
longer honest, than till public opinion may safely be encoun- 
tered by plausible pretences. The shouts of popularity only 
gratify the momentary vanity of man, whilst successful ambi- 
tion rewards more substantially his pride, or fills the measure 
of his avarice. The instances are rare, and therefore more 
precious, of perfect purity attending public character, with- 
out deviation, through the whole course of its career. 

Of those who led the Volunteer associations in Leinster, 
Lord Charlemont, the Duke of Leinster, Mr. Grattan, and Mr. 
Henry Flood had the greatest weight and authority; their 
popularity was extreme, and it was merited. 

To this list may be added the names of many others, par- 
ticularly Archdall, Stewart, and Brownlow, names that will 
forever remain engraved on the tablet of Irish gratitude, as 
belonging to men who remained steady during all the subse- 
quent ordeals through which their unfortunate country was 
doomed to pass, and formed a striking and melancholy con- 
trast to Altamont and Belvidere, Shannon and Clanricard, 
Longfield and Nevil, and the crowd of those, whose apostacy, 
in 1800, has stained the records of Irish history, and tarnished 
the character of Irish patriotism. A dereliction of public 
principle can only be accounted for by reflecting that the ac- 
complished politician and polished patriot are no less sus- 



In the Days op Grattan 353 

ceptible of the debasing passions of the human mind than 
the most humble and illiterate amongst uncultivated society. 
High rank and influence oftener expose the dormant errors 
than multiply the virtues of a public character. 

As soon as the Dungannon Volunteers had received the 
concurrence of the armed associations, the commons house 
of parliament assumed a new aspect. Its former submission 
and unqualified adulation to the minister and the lord lieuten- 
ant had departed. The old supporters of the government 
seemed only solicitious how they could diminish their obedi- 
ence without sacrificing their connection, and every successive 
debate showed evident symptoms of an approaching and de- 
cisive crisis. 

The proceedings of the people without doors now began 
to have their due weight on their representatives within ; the 
whole house appeared forming into new parties, accordingly 
as they were operated on by different degrees of caution, of 
timidity, of patriotism, and of interest; the leaders of each 
party became more conspicuous, and every question, however 
trivial, confessed the unsteadiness of the government, and 
betrayed the embarrassment of its supporters. 

Fitzgibbon pursued an unvaried course. His haughty and 
inflexible mind despised the country which he hoped one day 
to govern. Her release from British domination might also 
liberate her from his own grasp, and, so long as he could, he 
uniformly opposed every measure which might tend to her 
emancipation, save in a few instances, which, bj^ exposing his 
duplicity, confirmed his character. Perfectly indifferent as 
to the public, he every day gave fresh proofs of that arbitrary 
and impetuous talent, which so strongly contributed to bring 
the nation to its end, and himself to his conclusion, and he 
often embarrassed the government more by the intemperance 
of his support than their opponents by the steadiness of their 
opposition. 

The flame reached even those who from office or connec- 
tion were necessitated to adhere to the measures of govern- 
ment ; lowering their usual tone of arrogance and of triumph, 
they condescended to give reasons for their conduct, and ap- 
peared almost to court a supposition that this adherence was 
compulsory, and their conviction open; while the number 
was small of those who, looking to the possibility of a termi- 
nation favorable to the government, and their future interests, 
still gave them a support, the more acceptable because now 



354 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

more necessary. But it was too late— negotiation was at an 
end, the mine was charged, the train laid, the match was burn- 
ing, the summons was peremptory, and either surrender or ex- 
plosion was inevitable. At this moment the leading characters 
all started from their ranks; every party had its chief, and 
every chief turned his eyes, by almost unanimous assent, to 
the eloquence and energy of the ardent Grattan. The favorite 
of the parliament, the terror of the minister, the intimate 
friend of the ablest men and the indefatigable advocate of his 
country, he seemed most peculiarly calculated to bring for- 
ward some great or decisive measure, which should at once 
terminate the dangerous paroxysm to which the minds of the 
whole nation were now worked up, and by its decision inform 
them whether they were to receive their rights from the jus- 
tice, or to enforce them by the humiliation of Great Britain. 

The period, however, had not quite arrived for this step. 
Extensive as the abilities of Mr. Grattan were, they had many 
competitors ; jealousies intrude themselves even into the high- 
est minds ; the spirit of rivalship is inseparable from great tal- 
ents; Mr. Grattan 's importance was merely individual, and 
he was then only advancing to that pre-eminence, which he 
soon after acquired over all competitors. Though it was ap- 
proaching fast, it was evident that it had not indisputably 
arrived; it was essential that all those parties in the house 
should be a little more approximate, before a measure was 
announced on which unanimity was of vital importance. 

So much talent never had before appeared in the Irish 
senate as at that particular moment ; rank and fortune also 
were in higher estimation there than in England, where both 
are more common, and consequently less imposing. Elo- 
quence and talents have always had their appropriate weight 
in a popular assembly ; but several members of the Irish par- 
liament, in addition to splendid talents, having great fortune 
and distinguished rank to recommend them, the commons 
house was not as yet fully prepared to give so splendid a lead 
to any individual, who, devoid of these, had nothing to recom- 
mend him but his character and his talents. 

Those who led their respective parties were all men of 
eminent abilities or of extensive connections. Flood, Grat- 
tan, Brownlow, Burgh, Daly, Yelverton, appeared the most re- 
spected or efficient leaders of the opposition ; Scott (the attor- 
ney general) and Fitzgibbon were the most active and efficient 
supporters of the government; while Daly, Bagenall, Sir Ed- 



In the Days of Grattan 355 

ward Newenham, Mr. Joseph Dean and a number of county 
gentlemen, all dissimilar in habits, and heterogeneous in prin- 
ciples, were grouped together without any particular leader, 
but always paid a marked deference to the opinions of Mr. 
Brownlow, whose good sense, large fortune and reasonable 
efficiency constantly ensured him a merited attention. 

A few of these country gentlemen had a sort of exclusive 
privilege of speaking without interruption, whether they 
spoke good sense or folly, with reason or without, as suited 
their whims, or accorded with their capacities. Of this class 
was Mr. Thomas Connolly, who appeared to have the largest 
personal connection of any individual in the commons house of 
parliament. He took a principal lead amongst the country 
gentlemen because he spoke more than any of them, though 
probably his influence would have been greater if he had re- 
mained totally silent. He was a person of very high family, 
ample fortune, powerful connections, and splendid establish- 
ments; friendly, sincere, honorable and munificent in dispo- 
sition, but whimsical, wrongheaded and positive, his ideas of 
politics were limited and confused ; he mistook obstinancy for 
independence and singularity for patriotism, and fancied he 
was a Whig, because he was not professionally a Tory. 

Full of aristocracy, he was used by the patriots, when they 
could catch him, to give weight to their resolutions, and court- 
ed by the government, to take advantage of his whimsicality 
and embarrass the opposition. He was bad as a statesman, 
worse as an orator. In parliament he gave his opinions at the 
close of a debate, without having listened to its progress ; and 
attacked measures with a sort of blunt point, which generally 
bruised both his friends and his opponents. His qualities were 
curiously mixed, and his principles as singularly blended ; and 
if he had not been distinguished by birth and fortune, he cer- 
tainly would have remained all his life in obscurity. 

This gentleman had an extensive circle of adherents. On 
some questions he was led away by their persuasions, on oth- 
ers, they submitted to his prejudices, as a bait to fix him on 
more important occasions; and sometimes he differed unex- 
pectedly from all of them. He was nearly allied to the Irish 
minister at the discussion of the union, and he followed his 
lordship *s fortunes, surrendered his country, lost his own 
importance, died in comparative obscurity, and in his person 
ended the pedigree of one of the most respectable English 
families ever resident in Ireland. 



35G Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Many other persons, who distinguished themselves at this 
period of public trial, will be subjects of observation in the 
course of this memoir; but scarcely any of them more justly 
deserve notice than Mr. Yelverton, who was, perhaps, the only 
public character of those days whose every act could be with 
ease accounted for, his motives for the act being as palpable 
as the act was public ; and whether his conduct was right or 
wrong made no difference in this respect, its causes could be 
traced with equal facility, and he generally struggled as little 
against the propensities of his nature as any man that ever 
existed. In this narrative of the concerns of Ireland his name 
will frequently occur ; and as so extraordinary a character can 
never be forgotten in the minds of his countrymen, it may 
properly be anticipated. 

Barry Yelverton, of humble origin, afterwards Lord Avon- 
more, and successor to Hussey Burgh, as chief baron of the 
exchequer, had acquired great celebrity as an advocate at 
the Irish bar, and was at this time rapidly winging his way to 
the highest pinnacle of honorable notoriety and forensic ad- 
vancement. He had been elected member of parliament for 
the town of Carrickfergus, and became a zealous partisan for 
the claims of Ireland. 

It would be difficult to do justice to the lofty and over- 
whelming elocution of this distinguished man, during the 
early periods of his political exertions. To the profound, 
logical, and conclusive reasoning of Flood ; the brilliant, stim- 
ulating, epigrammatic antithesis of Grattan ; the sweet-toned, 
captivating, convincing rhetoric of Burgh; or the wild fasci- 
nating imagery and varied pathos of the extraordinary Cur- 
ran, he was respectively inferior; but in powerful, nervous 
language, he excelled them all. A vigorous, commanding, un- 
daunted eloquence burst in rolling torrents from his lips, not 
a word was lost. Though fiery, yet weighty and distinct, the 
authoritative rapidity of his language, relieved by the beauty 
of his luxuriant fancy, subdued the auditor without the power 
of resistance, and left him in doubt whether it was to argu- 
ment or to eloquence that he surrendered his conviction. 

His talents were alike adapted to public purposes, as his 
private qualities to domestic society. In the common transac- 
tions of the world he was an infant ; in the varieties of right 
and wrong, of propriety and error, a frail mortal ; in the sen- 
ate and at the bar, a mighty giant ; it was on the bench that, 
unconscious of his errors, and in his home unconscious of his 



In the Daysof Grattan 357 

virtues, both were most conspicuous. That deep-seated voice, 
which with equal power freezes the miser's heart and inflames 
the ruffian's passions, was to him a stranger; he was always 
rich and always poor; like his great predecessor, frugality 
fled before the carelessness of his mind, and left him the vic- 
tim of his liberality, and of course in many instances a monu- 
ment of ingratitude. His character was entirely transparent, 
it had no opaque qualities; his passions were open, his pre- 
possessions palpable, his failings obvious, and he took as little 
pains to conceal his faults as to publish his perfections. 

In politics he was more steady to party than to principle, 
but evinced no immutable consistency in either ; a patriot by 
nature, yet susceptible of seduction, a partisan by temper, yet 
capable of instability; the commencement and the conclusion 
of his political conduct were as distinct as the poles, and as 
dissimilar as the elements. 

Amply qualified for the bench by profound legal and con- 
stitutional learning, extensive professional practice, strong 
logical powers, a classical and wide ranging capacity, equit- 
able propensities and a philanthropic disposition, he pos- 
sessed all the positive qualifications for a great judge; but 
he could not temporize; the total absence of skilful or even 
necessary caution, and the indulgence of a few feeble coun- 
teracting habits, greatly diminished that high reputation, 
which a cold phlegmatic mien, or a solemn, imposing, vulgar 
plausibility confers on miserably inferior judges. 

But even with all his faults Lord Avonmore was vastly 
superior to all his judicial contemporaries. If he was im- 
petuous, it was an impetuosity in which his heart had no con- 
cern ; he was never unkind that he was not also repentant ; and 
ever thinking that he acted with rectitude, the cause of his 
greatest errors seemed to be a careless ignorance of his les- 
ser imperfections. 

He had a species of intermitting ambition, which either led 
him too far, or forsook him altogether. His pursuits, of 
course, were unequal, and his ways irregular. Elevated solely 
by his own talents, he acquired new habits without altogether 
divesting himself of the old ones. A scholar, a poet, a states- 
man, a lawyer, in elevated society he was a brilliant wit— at 
lower tables, a vulgar humorist ; he had appropriate anecdote 
and conviviality for all, and whether in the one or in the other, 
he seldom failed to be either entertaining or instructive. 

He was a friend, ardent, but indiscriminate even to blind- 



358 IrelanDjS Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ness; an enemy, warm, but forgiving even to folly; lie lost his 
dignity by the injudiciousness of his selections and sunk his 
consequence in the pliability of his nature ; to the first he was 
a dupe, to the latter an instrument; on the whole he was a 
more enlightened than efficient statesman, a more able than 
unexceptionable judge, and more honest in theory than the 
practice of his politics. His rising sun was brilliant, his 
meridian cloudy, his setting obscure ; crosses at length ruffled 
his temper— deceptions abated his confidence, time tore down 
his talents, he became depressed and indifferent, and after 
a long life of chequered incidents and inconsistent conduct, 
he died, leaving behind him few men who possessed so much 
talent, so much heart, or so much weakness. 

This distinguished man at the critical period of Ireland's 
emancipation, burst forth as a meteor in the Irish senate ; his 
career in the commons was not long, but it was busy and im- 
portant ; he had connected himself with the Duke of Portland, 
and continued that connection uninterrupted till the day of his 
dissolution. But through the influence of that nobleman, and 
the absolute necessity of a family provision on the question 
of the Union the radiance of his public character was ob- 
scured forever, the laurels of his early achievements fell with- 
ered from the brow, and having with zeal and sincerity labored 
to attain independence for his country in 1782, he became one 
of the sale-masters in 1800, and mingling in a motley crowd, 
uncongenial to his native character, and beneath his natural 
superiority, he surrendered the rights, the franchises and the 
honors of that peerage to which, by his great talents and his 
early virtues, he had been so justly elevated. 

Except upon the bench, his person was devoid of dignity 
and his appearance ordinary and mean, yet there was some- 
thing in the strong, the marked lines of his rough unfinished 
features, which bespoke a character of no common descrip- 
tion ; powerful talent was its first trait, fire and philanthropy 
contended for the next; his countenance, wi-ought up and 
varied by the strong impressions of his laboring mind, could 
be better termed indicatory than impressive ; and in the midst 
of his greatest errors and most reprehensible moments, it was 
difficult not to respect and impossible not to regard him. 



CHAPTER VII. 

GEATTAIT FORCES THE ISSUE— A SPECIAL. CALL OF THE HOUSE OF 
COMMONS— ENGLISH AND IRISH PARLIAMENTS COMPARED. 

Mr. Grattan had prepared and determined to move a gen- 
eral declaration of rights in the House of Commons; and it 
must have been an object of the utmost importance to the 
Duke of Portland either to prevent that measure altogether, 
or obtain at least its postponement until he became better 
acquainted with the disposition of the principal persons of the 
country, the full extent of their views, and how far he might 
be able to assuage the general irritation, without going the 
full length of their extensive requisitions. It was also of im- 
portance to the credit of his administration, that, if possible, 
he should have the substance of whatever he was authorized 
to accede to, made known by anticipation, as the liberal act of 
his government, through his English secretary, rather than 
brought forward, as the demand of the people, through their 
Irish advocate. Under these circumstances, an adjournment 
of parliament was a most desirable object, and he determined 
to attempt it through the negotiation of Mr. Fitzpatrick, who 
was at least as sincere a man as his noble employer, and had 
always expressed himself strongly in favor of the interest of 
Ireland. 

The Duke also felt the great importance of a little breath- 
ing-time after his arrival ; and both Mr. Fox and Lord Rock- 
ingham exerted themselves to obtain that object from the 
Irish patriots ; and under the circumstances in which his Grace 
stood, it might be supposed that it would have been granted 
without much hesitation; and in common times and cases it 
certainly would have been but just, and even in the existing 
one did not seem altogether unreasonable ; for, in fact, did not 
everything promise a harvest of benefits from the new ad- 
ministration? The avowed and proved enemies of Ireland 
had retired from office. In their stead at the head of the gov- 
ernment was the Marquis of Rockingham ; as a man, most ex- 
cellent ; as a statesman, constitutional, honest, liberal ; as Sec- 
retary of State, Mr. Fox, on the admirable nature of whose 
public principles eulogium would be surplusage; and for the 
management of the affairs of Ireland, the Duke of Portland, 

359 



360 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

accompanied by Colonel Fitzpatrick. A more propitious pros- 
pectus could hardly be expected; nor could England furnish 
many men, on whose tolerating dispositions the Irish nation 
had more reason to repose. But still it could not be forgotten 
that they were all Englishmen ; and though naturally munif- 
icent, honorable and conciliatory, yet necessarily partaking 
in some degree of those inherent prejudices, which education 
favors and habits confirm in English minds, unacquainted 
with the state of their sister country, and, of course, cautious 
of committing themselves with the one country, by too pre- 
cipitate and favorable a change of system towards the other. 
Men the most enlightened on general principles are frequently 
found feeble on abstract subjects ; and Mr. Fox was excusable 
in his wariness of adopting sudden determinations, repugnant 
to the theories and practice of all former ministers and for- 
mer parliaments of Great Britain. 

Every proper preliminary, therefore, was adopted by the 
new ministry to prepare their nation for measures towards 
Ireland which never were, and never could be, popular in 
England; and with a view to anticipating the expected pro- 
ceedings of the Irish parliament, a message was delivered 
from the King to the British parliament, on the 18th of April, 
1782, stating ''That mistrusts and jealousies had arisen in 
Ireland, and that it was highly necessary to take the same 
into consideration, in order to a final adjustment." This 
message from the King, when coupled with the address of 
the British parliament to his Majesty in reply, expressive of 
"their entire and cheerful concurrence in his Majesty's views 
of a final adjustment," if they are to be understood in the 
plain and unequivocal meaning of words and construction of 
sentences, clearly import the conjoined sentiments of both the 
British King and British Parliament to proceed to a final ad- 
justment of all differences between the two countries ; and this 
message and reply are here more particularly alluded to, be- 
cause they form one of the principal points afterwards relied 
upon in the Irish parliament as decisive against any agitation 
of the question of a Union. The words final adjustment, so 
unequivocally expressed by his Majesty, were immediately 
acted upon by the parliaments of both nations, and the ad- 
justment which took place in consequence of the message was 
considered by the contracting parties as decisively conclusive 
and final— as intended to be an indissoluble compact, mutually 
and definitely ratified by the two nations. 



In the Days of Grattan 361 

The measure of a Union, therefore, being proposed, and 
afterwards carried against the will of the people; by the 
power and through the corruption of the executive authority ; 
after the complete ratification of that contract, and after it 
had been acted upon for seventeen years, was clearly a direct 
infringement of that final adjustment— a breach of national 
faith— an infraction of that constitutional federative compact 
solemnly enacted by the mutual concurrence of the King, 
Lords and Commons of Ireland, and the King, Lords, and 
Commons of Great Britain, in their joint and several legis- 
lative capacities. 

This message, therefore, forms a predominant circum- 
stance, as applying to the most important subsequent occur- 
rences between the two nations, and as such, should be kept 
in mind through every event detailed in this memoir. It also 
leads to some considerations, which, though they may be con- 
sidered as a digression from the transactions which imme- 
diately took place in consequence of the message, are yet of 
considerable utility in elucidating the respective situation of 
the two countries, at the time this final adjustment was pro- 
posed by the King, and the sense that his Majesty's ministers, 
eighteen years afterwards, were pleased to give to the word 
final, when they conceived it necessary to argue that it bore, 
not a positive, but an inclusive import, and could only be con- 
strued as giving an indefinite scope for future negotiation. 

Previous to the year 1780, the distressed state of Ireland, 
the law of Poyning, the sixth of George the First, the stand- 
ing army under a permanent mutiny bill, the dependence of 
the judges, the absence of the habeas corpus act, the re- 
straints on commerce, and the deprivation of a constitution 
had often suggested to some of the best friends of Ireland the 
idea of a complete incorporation of that country with Great 
Britain, as the only remedy for its accumulated and accumu- 
lating grievances and oppressions as the most advantageous 
measure which could be obtained for Ireland under its then 
deplorable circumstances; and about the year 1753, and sub- 
sequently, several pamphlets of considerable merit were pub- 
lished on this subject, detailing the advantages which Ireland 
must necessarily have derived from so close and beneficial a 
connection. 

As Ireland was then trampled upon, oppressed, and put 
down without the power of resistance, or any probable chance 
of ever obtaining justice ; there could be no doubt that almost 



362 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

any change must have been beneficial; and, in that point of 
view, a complete union of the two nations would then have 
been in many respects extremely fortunate for that ruined 
country. The British parliament had declared itself para- 
mount to that of Ireland. The Irish parliament, tired of inef- 
fectual struggles for even the name of independence, had be- 
come indifferent to its fate, and sunk into a state of lassitude 
and debility, from which, though it was occasionally roused by 
the sharp stings of oppression, it soon relapsed into its own 
apathy, partly through despair and partly through corruption, 
while the people, kept systematically ignorant, and of course 
having but little public mind and less public information, were 
naturally indifferent to the existence of a representative as- 
sembly, of which they neither felt the honor nor experienced 
the utility. 

But at that period England was too powerful, too jealous, 
and too haughty to equalize her constitution and her com- 
merce, with what she considered as a conquered country. She 
had then no object to obtain from a captive who lay groaning 
at her feet, picking up the crumbs that fell from the rich man's 
table. The prejudiced, contracted and fallacious views which 
England then took of the state of Ireland, deceived her as to 
her own interests, connected with the general strength and 
prosperity of the whole empire, and every idea of an incorpor- 
ate union with Ireland was rejected with disdain by the Brit- 
ish nation. England had united herself with Scotland to avoid 
the chance of a total separation which it was more than prob- 
able might otherwise have been the consequence of distinct 
dynasties; but the state of Ireland and the nature of her 
federal connection with England occasioned no risk of such 
an event, and therefore created no such uneasiness or neces- 
sity, and the idea seemed to have been totally relinquished by 
both countries— by the one, because she was too haughty and 
avaracious to grant, by the other because she was too poor and 
too dejected to obtain so advantageous an arrangement. 

But when Ireland, by the causes heretofore detailed, had 
been awakened to a sense of her own strength, and a knowl- 
edge of her own resources ; when America had shown her the 
example of perseverance, and the possibility of obtaining jus- 
tice, every idea of annexation to England vanished like the 
passing wind ; liberty was attainable, prosperity must follow 
liberty, and, in 1782, there was scarcely an Irishman who 
would not have sooner sunk under the ruins of his country 



In the Days of Grattan 363 

than submit to a measure which, a few years before, was an 
object at least of indifference. England too late perceived its 
error ; a union in 1753 would have effectually ended all claims 
of an independent constitution by Ireland in 1782, and would 
have been an object of the highest importance to Great Brit- 
ain ; but now it was a word she durst not even articulate ; the 
very sound of it would have been equal to a declaration of hos- 
tilities, and however indisposed the new ministers of England 
might have been to admit all the claims of Ireland, the words 
''final adjustment," so emphatically used by his Majesty, left 
no room to suppose that a union could be in contemplation, or 
ever afterwards be insisted upon ; and yet it is singular that 
the very same words, "final adjustment," were repeated by 
the Irish minister, when a union was proposed to the Irish 
parliament in 1800 for its consideration. 

So many arguments afterwards arose from that expres- 
sion, so many sophistical constructions were placed on his 
majesty's message, so much duplicity did his ministers at- 
tribute to his language, that it is impossible to believe that all 
the ministers of that day were unreservedly sincere as to the 
finality of the arrangement made with Ireland under its then 
commanding attitude, and it reminds us of one very remark- 
able truism of Irish history, that no compact had ever before 
been entered into between the two countries, that had not 
been infringed or attempted to be infringed by England, when 
her power enabled her to withdraw from her engagements. 

Nothing can more clearly elucidate the public conduct of 
the Duke of Portland. In 1782, he came to Ireland to consum- 
mate a final adjustment between the two nations, and in pur- 
suance of such proposal, a final adjustment was apparently 
effected, passed by the parliament of both nations, confirmed 
by the honor of Great Britain, and sanctified by the faith of 
Majesty. The Duke of Portland was the accredited agent of 
that final adjustment, the responsible minister of both na- 
tions, the official voucher of its perpetuity and, therefore, 
should have been the guardian of that independence, which 
was effected through himself, and declared by him, as viceroy, 
to be final and conclusive. 

Yet, in 1800, the same Duke of Portland is found retracing 
all his former steps, recanting his Irish creed, demolishing 
that independence of which he was the guardian, falsifying 
his own words, and equivocating on those of his sovereign to 
both parliaments, and arguing upon an incongruity, never yet 



364 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

paralleled, namely, that the words ''final" and ''inclusive" 
were synonymous in politics ; for upon no other principle could 
his grace's first and latter conduct be explained or justified. 

It is impossible, therefore, to give the Duke the merit of 
sincerity towards Ireland in 1782. The altered state of Ire- 
land in 1800 was made the solitary but fallacious pretense for 
dissolving a solemn bond, breaking the ties of national faith, 
and diminishing the character of royal integrity. 

The Duke was obliged to meet the Irish parliament within 
two days after his arrival ; those days were employed in en- 
deavoring to procure an adjournment of the house, and sev- 
eral confidential communications took place between him, Mr. 
Grattan and others, who had determined not to admit the de- 
lay of a single hour. The Duke's arrival in Ireland had been 
preceded by letters from the Marquis of Eockingham ana 
Mr. Fox to the Earl of Charlemont, requesting an adjourn- 
ment of parliament for three weeks, and expressing their con- 
viction that the request would be immediately acceded to. 
Nothing could more clearly prove their ignorance of the state 
of Ireland. All the influence of the crown could not have ad- 
journed the commons for a single day. The people were too 
impatient for any procrastination. By adjournment the par- 
liament would have lost its character, and the members their 
influence, anarchy would have been the inevitable result, and 
instead of a placid, constitutional, parliamentary declaration 
of rights, a recess would probably have occasioned popular 
declarations of a more alarming tendency. For every reason, 
therefore, an adjournment, though superficially considered, 
seemed an object of importance to government, and might 
have ended in measures greatly to their disadvantage. 

The reasons for declining all delay were communicated to 
the Duke of Portland by Mr. Grattan, and the Duke, though 
not convinced, having no power of resistance, was passive 
on a proceeding which he could not encounter. 

Mr. Grattan also, previously to proposing his measure to 
parliament, fairly submitted the intended declaration of rights 
to the Duke, but it was rather too strong and too peremptory 
for his grace's approbation. He durst not, however, say he 
would oppose, and yet could not say he would support it, but 
he proposed amendments which would have effectually de- 
stroyed the vigor and narrowed the compass of these reso- 
lutions, and recommended modifications which would have 
neutralized its firmness. Mr. Grattan declined any alteration 



In the Days of Grattax 365 

whatever, and the Duke remained doubtful whether his 
friends would accede to or resist it, and it is more than prob- 
able he was himself at the same moment equally irresolute as 
to his own future conduct; he had no time to communicate 
with England, and his only resource was that of fishing for 
the support of eminent persons in both houses of parliament, 
in the hope of being able in modifying to moderate by their 
means the detailed measures which would follow the declara- 
tion. 

Whilst the chief governor was thus involved in perplexity 
and doubt, every step was taken by the advocates of independ- 
ence to secure the decisive triumph of Mr. Grattan's intended 
declaration. Whoever has individually experienced the sen- 
sations of ardent expectation, trembling suspense, burning 
impatience, and determined resolution, and can suppose all 
those sensations possessing an entire nation, may form some 
but yet an inadequate idea of the feelings of the Irish peo- 
ple on the 16th of April, 1782, which was the day peremptorily 
fixed by Mr. Grattan for moving that declaration of rights, 
which was the proximate cause of Ireland's short-lived pros- 
perity, and the remote one of its final overthrow and annexa- 
tion. So high were the minds of the public wound up on the 
eve of that momentous day that the Volunteers flew to their 
arms without having an enemy to encounter, and, almost 
breathless with impatience, inquired eagerly after the proba- 
bility of events which the close of the same day must certainly 
determine. 

It is difficult for any persons but those who have witnessed 
the awful state of expected revolutions and of popular com- 
motion to describe the interesting moments which preceded the 
meeting of the Irish parliament ; and it is equally impossible 
to describe the no less interesting conduct of the Irish Volun- 
teers on that trying occasion. Had the parliament rejected 
Mr. Grattan 's motion, no doubt could exist in the minds of 
those who were witnesses to the temper of the times that the 
connection with England would have been shaken to its very 
foundation, yet the most perfect order and decorum were ob- 
served by the armed associations, who paraded in every quar- 
ter of the city. Though their own ardor and impatience were 
great they wisely discouraged any manifesting of the same 
warm feelings amongst the lower orders of the people, and 
though they were resolved to lose the last drop of their blood 
to obtain the independence of their country, they acted as 



366 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

preservers of the peace, and by their exertions effectually 
prevented the slightest interruption of public tranquillity ; the 
awe of their presence restrained every symptom of popular 
commotion. 

Early on the 16th of April, 1782, the great street before 
the house of parliament was thronged by a multitude of people 
of every class, and of every description, though many hours 
must elapse before the house would meet or business be pro- 
ceeded on. As it was a circumstance which seldom takes place 
on the eve of remarkable events, it becomes a proper subject 
of remark, that though more than many thousands of people, 
inflamed by the most ardent zeal, were assembled in a public 
street without any guide, restraint or control save the example 
of the Volunteers, not the slightest appearance of tumult was 
observable, on the contrary, such perfect order prevailed that 
not even an angry word or offensive expression escaped their 
lips. Nothing could more completely prove the good disposi- 
tion of the Dublin populace, than this correctness of demeanor, 
at a time when they had been taught that the very existence of 
their trade and manufactures and consequently the future 
existence of themselves and their families, was to be decided 
by the conduct of their representatives that evening; and it 
was gratifying to see that those who were supposed or even 
proved to have been their decided enemies, were permitted to 
pass through this immense assemblage without receiving the 
slightest token of incivility and with the same ease as those 
who were known to be their determined friends. 

The parliament had been summoned to attend this mo- 
mentous question by an unusual and special call of the house, 
and by four o'clock a full meeting took place. The body of 
the House of Commons was crowded with its members, a great 
proportion of the peerage attended as auditors, and the ca- 
pacious gallery which surrounded the interior magnificent 
dome of the house contained above four hundred ladies of the 
highest distinction, who partook of the same national fire 
which had enlightened their parents, their husbands and their 
relatives, and by the sympathetic influence of their presence 
and zeal communicated an instinctive chivalrous impulse to 
eloquence and to patriotism. 

Those who have only seen the tumultuous rush of imperial 
parliaments scuffling in the antiquated chapel of St. Stephen's 
crowded by a gallery of note-takers, anxious to catch the pub- 
lic penny by the earliest reports of good speeches made bad, 



In the Days of Grattan 367 

and bad speeches made better, indifferent as to subjects and 
careless as to misrepresentation, yet the principal medium 
of communication between the sentiments of the representa- 
tive and the curiosity of the represented, can form the idea of 
the interesting appearance of the Irish House of Commons. 
The cheerful magnificence of its splendid architecture, the 
number, the decorum and the brilliancy of the anxious audi- 
tory, the vital question that night to be determined, and the 
solemn dignity which clothed the proceedings of that awful 
moment collectively produced impressions, even on disinter- 
ested strangers, which perhaps had never been so strongly or 
so justly excited by the appearance and proceedings of any 
house of legislature. 

Mr. Sextus Perry then occupied the speakers' chair, a 
person in whose integrity the house, the nation and the gov- 
ernment reposed the greatest confidence; a man in whose 
pure character, spirit, dignity, independence of mind, and 
honesty of principle, were eminently conspicuous; decisive, 
constitutional, patriotic, discreet, he was everything that be- 
came his office, and everything that became himself. He had 
been a barrister in extensive practice at the time of his eleva- 
tion, and to the moment of his death he never departed from 
the line of rectitude, which marked every step of his progress 
through life, whether in a public or private station. Mr. 
Perry took the chair at four o'clock. The singular wording 
of the summons had its complete effect, and procured the at- 
tendance of almost every member resident within the king- 
dom. A calm but deep solicitude was apparent on almost 
every countenance when Mr. Grattan entered, accompanied 
by Mr. Brownlow and several others, the determined and im- 
portant advocates for the declaration of Irish independence. 
Mr. Grattan 's preceding exertions and anxiety had manifestly 
injured his health; his tottering frame seemed barely suf- 
ficient to sustain his laboring mind, replete with the unprece- 
dented importance and responsibility of the measure he was 
about to bring forward. He was unacquainted with the recep- 
tion it would obtain from the connections of the governments, 
he was that day irretrievably to commit his country with 
Great Britain and through him Ireland was either to assert 
her liberty or start from the connection. His own situation 
was tremendous, that of the members attached to the ad- 
ministration embarrassing, that of the people anxious to pal- 
pitation. For a short time a profound silence ensued ; it was 



368 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

expected that Mr. Grattan would immediately rise when the 
wisdom and discretion of the government gave a turn to the 
proceedings which in a moment eased the parliament of its 
solicitude, Mr. Grattan of the weight that oppressed him, and 
the people of their anxiety. Mr. Hely Hutchinson (then secre- 
tary of state in Ireland) rose. He said that his Excellency, 
the Lieutenant, had ordered him to deliver a message from 
the King, importing that "His Majesty, being concerned to 
find that discontents and jealousies were prevailing among 
his loyal subjects in Ireland, upon matters of great weight 
and importance, recommended to the house to take the same 
into their most serious consideration, in order to effect such 
a final adjustment as might give satisfaction to both king- 
doms." And Mr. Hutchinson accompanied this message— and 
his statement of his own views on the subject— with a deter- 
mination to support a declaration of Irish rights, and con- 
stitutional independence. 

Notwithstanding this official communication, the govern- 
ment members were still greatly perplexed how to act. Mr. 
Grattan's intended declaration of independence was too 
strong, decisive and prompt to be relished as the measure of 
any government ; it could neither be wholly resisted nor gen- 
erally approved of by the viceroy. His secretary. Colonel 
Fitzpatrick, was not yet in parliament, all modification what- 
soever had been rejected by Mr. Grattan and his friends, and 
it is generally believed, that the members of the government 
went to parliament that day without any decided plan or sys- 
tem, but determined to regulate their own individual conduct 
by the circumstances that might occur, and the general dis- 
position indicated by the majority of the house in the course 
of the proceedings. 

Thus, on the 16th of April, 1782, after nearly 700 years of 
subjugation, oppression and misery, after centuries of un- 
availing complaint and neglected remonstrance, did the King 
of Ireland, through his Irish secretary of state, at length him- 
self propose to redress those grievances through his Irish par- 
liament, an authority which, as King of England, his minister 
had never before recognized or admitted. In a moment the 
whole scene was completely changed; those miserable pros- 
pects which had so long disgusted and at length so completely 
agitated the Irish people, vanished from their view; the phe- 
nomena of such a message had an instantaneous and astonish- 
ing effect and pointed out such a line of conduct to every party 



In the Days of Grattan 369 

and to every individual, as left it almost impossible for any 
but the most mischievous characters to obstruct the happy 
unanimity which now became the gratifying result of this 
prudent and wise proceeding. 

Mr. Hutchinson, however, observed in his speech that he 
was not officially authorized to say more than simply to de- 
liver the message; he was therefore silent as to all details, 
and pledged the government to none, the parliament would 
act upon the message as to themselves might seem advisable. 
Another solemn pause now ensued. Mr. Grattan remained 
silent. 

Mr. George Ponsonby rose, and after eulogizing the King, 
the British Minister, and the Irish Government, simply pro- 
posed an humble address in reply, ' ' thanking the King for his 
goodness and condescension, and assuring his majesty that 
his faithful commoners would immediately proceed upon the 
great objects he had recommended to their consideration." 

This uncircumstantial reply, however, fell very short of 
the expectation of the house, or the intentions of Mr. Grattan. 
On common occasions it would have answered the usual pur- 
poses of incipient investigation ; but the subject of Irish griev- 
ances required no committee to investigate, no protracted de- 
bates for further discussion. The claims of Ireland were al- 
ready well known to the King and to his ministers ; they had 
been recorded by the Dungannon convention, and now only 
required a parliamentary adoption in terms too explicit to 
be misconstrued and too peremptory to be rejected. It is true, 
the good intentions of his majesty were announced, the favor- 
able disposition of his cabinet communicated, a redress of dis- 
contents and jealousies suggested, but nothing specific was 
vouched or even alluded to ; the present favorable government 
might be displaced and the King's conceding intentions 
changed by a change of ministers, and Ireland thus be again 
committed with Great Britain under circumstances of dimin- 
ished strength and more difficult adjustment. Every man per- 
ceived the crisis, but no man could foresee the result— some 
decisive step appeared inevitable, but without great prudence 
that step might be destructive ; popular impetuosity frequently 
defeats its own objects, the examples of European history in 
all ages have proved that rash or premature efforts to shake 
off oppression, generally confirmed, or rent the chains of des- 
potism from the grasp of one ruler, only to transfer them 
with stronger rivets to the power of a successor. It is less 



370 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

difficult to throw off the trammels of an usurping government 
than to secure the preservation of a new-gained constitution, 
and in cold and phlegmatic nations where the sublime prin- 
ciples of political freedom were less investigated or less val- 
ued than in Ireland at that enlightened epoch, more compre- 
hensive powers might be entrusted to the prudence of the peo- 
ple or delegated to the guardianship of selected chieftains; 
but, in an ardent nation distinguished more for its talents and 
its enthusiasm than for its steadiness or its foresight, where 
every man fostered his heated feelings, and the appetite for 
liberty was whetted even to voracity by the slavery of ages, 
hasty or violent proceedings, however they might for a mo- 
ment appear to promote a rescue of the country from existing 
evils, would probably plunge it still deeper into unforeseen 
and more deplorable misfortunes. Visionary men and vision- 
ary measures are never absent from such political struggles, 
but if the frenzy of Eutopian speculations gets wing amongst 
a people, it becomes the most plausible pretext to oppressive 
rulers and the most destructive enemy to the attainment of 
constitutional liberty, and at this important crisis had one 
rash step prematurely committed Ireland and Great Britain 
in hostile struggle the contest would have ended in the ruin 
of one country, if not of both. 

These considerations had great weight, and excited great 
embarrassments amongst the leading members in the Irish 
Parliament ; different characters of course took different views 
of this intricate subject; strength of intellect, courage, cow- 
ardice, interest, ignorance or information naturally communi- 
cated their correspondent impressions and but few persons 
seemed entirely to coincide on the specific limits to which these 
popular proceedings might advance with safety. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

DECLARATION OF IRISH RIGHTS IS MOVED IN THE HOUSE OF COM- 
MONS — TRIUMPHANT OUTCOME— IRELAND IS A NATION. 

Mr. Grattan had long declared the absolute necessity of 
gratifying the people by a legislative declaration of Irish 
rights and constitutional independence, marking out by an 
indelible record that sacred Rubicon past which the British 
government should never more advance, and beyond which 
the Irich nation should never wander. On that point the fate 
of Ireland vibrated as on a pivot, it must rise or it must fall, 
it could no longer remain stationary, and the great landed 
proprietors strongly felt that they must necessarily partici- 
pate in its vicissitudes ; the court had totally lost its influence, 
the people had entirely acquired theirs, the old system of Irish 
government was annihilated, and the British cabinet had 
neither the wisdom nor the disposition to take a decisive lead 
in more popular arrangements ; the parliament and the peo- 
ple were gradually drawing together, an instinctive sense of 
the common difficulty called all men towards some common 
centre, all parties, all sects and all factions looked to the tal- 
ents and the honesty of Mr. Grattan ; they knew that he had 
no object but his own country, and no party but its supporters ; 
they knew that his energetic mind could neither be restrained 
by resistance nor neutralized by subterfuge ; he possessed all 
those intellectual qualities best calculated to lead the Irish 
people to the true standard of freedom. 

It is an observation not unworthy of remark, that in de- 
scribing the events of that important evening, the structure of 
the Irish House of Commons (as before mentioned) at the 
period of these debates was particularly adapted to convey 
to the people an impression of dignity and of splendor in their 
legislative assembly; the interior of the Commons House was 
a rotunda of great architectural magnificence; an immense 
gallery, supported by Tuscan pillars, surrounded the inner 
base of a grand and lofty dome ; in that gallery, on every im- 
portant debate, nearly seven hundred auditors heard the senti- 
ments and learned the characters of their Irish representa- 
tives ; the gallery was never cleared on a division ; the rising 
generation acquired a love of eloquence and of liberty, the 

371 



372 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

principles of a just and prond ambition, the details of public 
business, and the rudiments of constitutional legislation. 

The front rows of this gallery were generally occupied by 
females of the highest rank and fashion, whose presence gave 
an animating and brilliant splendor to the entire scene, and in 
a nation such as Ireland then was, from which the gallant 
principles of chivalry had not been altogether banished, con- 
tributed not a little to the preservation of that decorum so in- 
dispensable to the dignity and weight of deliberative as- 
semblies. 

This entire gallery had been crowded at an early hour by 
personages of the first respectability of both sexes ; it would 
be difficult to describe the interesting appearance of the whole 
assemblage at this awful moment; after the speech of Mr. 
Hutchinson, which in fact decided nothing, a low, confidential 
whisper ran through the house, and every member seemed to 
court the sentiments of his neighbor without venturing to ex- 
press his own ; the anxious spectators inquisitively leaned for- 
ward, awaiting with palpitating expectation the development 
of some measure likely to decide the fate of their country, 
themselves and their posterity. No middle course could pos- 
sibly be adopted; immediate conciliation and tranquillity, or 
revolt and revolution was the dilemma which floated on every 
thinking mind ; a solemn pause ensued ; at length Mr. Grattan, 
slowly rising from his seat, commenced the most luminous, 
brilliant, and effective oration ever delivered in the Irish par- 
liament. 

This speech, ranking in the very first class of effective elo- 
quence, rising in its progress, applied equally to the sense, 
the pride and the spirit of the nation; every succeeding sen- 
tence increased the interest which his exordium had excited; 
tramping upon the arrogant claims and unconstitutional 
usurpations of the British government, he reasoned on the 
enlightened principle of a federative compact, and urged ir- 
resistibly the necessity, the justice and the policy of immedi- 
ately and unequivocally declaring the constitutional independ- 
ence of the Irish nation and the supremacy of the Irish par- 
liament, as the only effectual means of preserving the con- 
nection between the two nations. His arguments were power- 
ful and conclusive, but they were not original, it was the very 
same course of argument which that great Irish statesman, 
Molyneux, had published near a century before, the same prin- 
ciples on which Swift, the ablest of the Irish patriots, had de- 



In the Days of Grattan 373 

fended his country and the same which that less able, but not 
less sincere and honest friend of Ireland, Dr. Lucas, had con- 
tinually maintained, frequently in opposition to the doctrines 
of Mr. Grattan 's own father. Some passages of this oration 
were particularly characteristic of Mr. Grattan 's energetic 
manner. ^'He admired that steady progressive virtue which 
had at length awakened Ireland to her rights, and roused 
her to her liberties ; he was not yet old, but he remembered her 
a child ; he had watched her growth ; from childhood she grew 
to arms, from arms she grew to liberty; whenever historic 
annals tell of great revolutions in favor of freedom they were 
owing to the quick feelings of an irritated populace excited 
by some strong object presented to their senses; such was 
the daughter of Virginius sacrificed to virtue, such were the 
meagre and haggard looks of the seven bishops sacrified to 
liberty. But it was not the sudden impulse of irritated feel- 
ings which had animated Ireland, she had calmly mused for 
centuries on her oppressions, and as deliberately rose to res- 
cue the land from her oppressors. 

For a people to acquire liberty they must have a lofty con- 
ception of themselves ; what sets one nation above another but 
the soul that dwells within her? Deprive it of its soul, it may 
still retain a strong arm, but from that moment ceases to be 
a nation, of what avail the exertions of Lords and Commons 
if unsupported by the soul and exertions of the people? The 
Dungannon meeting had spoken this language with the calm 
and steady voice of an injured country ; that meeting had been 
considered as an alarming measure because it was unprece- 
dented. But it was an original transaction and all original 
transactions must be unprecedented ; the attainment of Magna 
Charta had no precedent, it was a great original transaction 
not obtained by votes of parliament, but by barons in the field. 
To that great original transaction England owed her liberty, 
and to the great original transaction at Dungannon Ireland 
will be indebted for hers. The Irish Volunteers had associ- 
ated to support the laws and the constitution, the usurpations 
of England have violated both, and Ireland has therefore 
armed to defend the principles of the British constitution 
against the violations of the British government. Let 
other nations basely suppose that people were made for gov- 
ernments, Ireland has declared that governments were made 
for the people, and even crowns, those great luminaries whose 
brightness they all reflect, can receive their cheering fire only 



374 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

from the pure flame of a free constitution. England has the 
plea of necessity for acknowledging the independence of 
America, for admitting Irish independence she has the plea of 
justice ! America has shed much English blood, and America 
is to be set free ; Ireland has shed her own blood for England, 
and is Ireland to remain in fetters ? Is Ireland to be the only 
nation whose liberty England will not acknowledge, and whose 
affections she cannot subdue? We have received the civic 
crown from our people, and shall we, like slaves, lay it down 
at the feet of British supremacy 1 ' ' 

Proceeding in the same glow of language and of reasoning, 
and amidst an universal cry of approbation, Mr. Grattan went 
fully into a detail of Irish rights and grievances, and con- 
cluded his statement by moving, as an amendment to Mr. Pon- 
sonby's motion, ''That an humble address be presented to his 
majesty to return his majesty the thanks of this house for his 
most gracious message to this house, delivered by his Grace, 
the Lord Lieutenant. 

''To assure his Majesty of our unshaken attachment to 
his Majesty's person and government, and of our lively sense 
of his paternal care in thus taking the lead to administer con- 
tent to his Majesty's subjects to Ireland. 

"That thus encouraged by his royal interposition, we shall 
beg leave, with all duty and submission, to lay before his Maj- 
esty the cause of all our discontents and jealousies ; to assure 
his Majesty that his subjects of Ireland are a free people, that 
the crown of Ireland is an imperial crown, inseparably con- 
nected with the crown of Great Britain on which connection 
the interests and happiness of both nations essentially de- 
pend—but that the kingdom of Ireland is a distinct kingdom, 
with a parliament of her own the sole legislature thereof — 
that there is no body of men competent to make laws to bind 
the nation but the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland— nor 
any parliament which hath any authority or power of any sort 
whatever in this country save only the parliament of Ireland 
—to assure his Majesty that we humbly conceive that in this 
right the very essence of our liberty exists— a right which we, 
on the part of the people of Ireland, do claim as their birth- 
right, and which we cannot yield but with our lives. ' ' 

The effect of this speech and the concluding amendment 
was instantaneous and decisive. A legislative declaration of 
independence at once placed the rights and determinations of 
of Ireland on a footing too high to be relinquished without an 



In the Days of Grattan 375 

exterminating contest ; tlie circumstances of both nations were 
imperative; Ireland was committed and must persist, and 
Great Britain had lavished in America her powers of resist- 
ance. That haughty government, which in all the arrogance 
of superior force had for so many centuries lorded over the 
natural rights and scoffed at the groans of her sister country, 
at length reached the highest climax of oppression and intoler- 
ance, and was necessitated to acknowledge the wrongs and the 
virtues of that people, and peaceably capitulate to a nation 
which, by honest means, it might at any time have conciliated. 
The whole house in a moment caught the patriotic flame, 
which seemed to issue from every bench of the entire as- 
sembly. Mr. Grattan had selected, to second and support his 
declaration, a person who gave it as much influence as charac- 
ter and independence could possibly communicate. Well 
aware of the great importance which was attributed to the 
accession of the landed interest in parliamentary measures, 
he judicially selected Mr. Brownlow, member for the county 
of Armagh, as one of the first of the country gentlemen in 
point of wealth and reputation. 

No man could better be adapted to obtain the concurrence 
of the landed interest than Mr. Brownlow. His own stake in 
the country was too great to be risked on giddy speculations ; 
his interests were entirely identified with those of the coun- 
try; and having no courtly connections to detract from his 
independence, or aristocratic trains to trifle with his purity^ 
everything he said, and every measure he supported, carried 
a certain portion of influence amongst the country gentlemen, 
and they often followed his example solely because they could 
not suspect its honesty. 

The great body of the landed proprietors in parliament, 
though intrinsically honest, were simple, prejudiced, refrac- 
tory, and gregarious ; the Government, on ordinary occasions, 
found it not difficult to delude or disunite them ; and even on 
this day, without such a leader as Mr. Brownlow, the entire 
unanimity of their opinion on their conduct could by no means 
be depended on. 

After Mr. Grattan had concluded, Mr. Brownlow instantly 
rose— a great symptom of approbation ran through the house 
at perceiving so great an auxiliary to so decisive a declaration 
—his example gave countenance to many, and confidence to all ; 
his speech was short, but it was decided, and expressed in such 
terms as at once determined the country gentlemen to adopt 



376 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the measure in its full extent without further delay, and to 
pledge their lives and fortunes to the support and establish- 
ment of Irish independence; he said, "as he had the honor 
to second the mover in adversity, he could not avoid main- 
taining the same honor at a moment of triumph. He had 
long seen that things must come to this ; the people had learned 
their rights and they would have them. An end has been pro- 
claimed to temporizing expedients, to artful delay, and to 
political junctions; the people have demanded their rights, 
and the Irish i^arliament will support them with their lives and 
fortunes. He would leave the other side of the House to dis- 
cuss the subject, and if they were anxious to atone for their 
past conduct, he would not check the ardor of their patriotism, 
which, after being so long restrained, seemed ready to burst 
forth, and he should rejoice in the explosion. As to the declara- 
tion of rights, the honorable gentleman would have the eter- 
nal gratification of having reared this infant child, his (Mr. 
Brownlow's) only merit would be, that, though he could not 
maintain it with ability, his utmost zeal should be exerted to 
support it." 

On the conclusion of Mr. Brownlow's speech, another short 
pause ensued; but it was not a pause of doubt, the measure 
was obviously decided, the victory was complete ; nothing re- 
mained in suspense but through whom, and by what species 
of declaration the Grovernment could submit to so strong a 
measure ; some of the officers of the Crown had been the ser- 
vants of the last administration, and the short period from 
the arrival of the Duke of Portland had given no time to his 
cabinet for consideration or concert ; the dynasty of diplomatic 
evasion had ceased to reign ; and for the first time in the annals 
of the British history, the officers and ministers of govern- 
ment appeared to be let loose upon the parliament, to recant 
their principles and capitulate for their characters. The first 
they performed, the latter they failed in. Men may pity the 
feelings of a vanquished enemy, but they can never securely 
trust to his compulsory repentance, and they who had ex- 
pended every day of their political life in upholding the prin- 
ciple of British supremacy, could hardly expect to receive 
more confidence from the nation than that which belongs to 
the character of defeated apostates. 

Mr. George Ponsonby, on the part of the Lord Lieutenant, 
submitted with as good a grace as the circumstance would 
admit of, to a proceeding which it was impossible could be 



In the Days of Grattan 377 

pleasing lo any English ministry. Mr. Ponsonby had been 
generally in opposition since the time of his father's disagree- 
ment with Lord Townsend, and his family being entirely at- 
tached to the Whig interests of England, the change of min- 
istry naturally brought to the Marquis of Rockingham's ad- 
ministration and aid, the persons who had been so long in 
opposition to his predecessor. Mr. Ponsonby 's family, of 
course, connected itself in Ireland with the Duke of Portland, 
and it was expected that he would have been placed in high 
confidence under his Grace's administration. 

Blending an aristocratic mind with patriotic feelings, and 
connected with a Viceroy who could himself hardly guess the 
road he might have to travel, Mr. Ponsonby could not at such a 
moment be expected to play the full game of popular expecta- 
tion. Extensive and high family connections, whatever party 
they espouse in public transactions, ever communicate some 
tints of their own coloring, and impose some portion of volun- 
tary restraint upon the free agency of public characters ; and 
had Mr. Ponsonby been an isolated man, he would have been a 
more distinguished personage. A nation may sometimes look 
with confidence to individuals, but they are a credulous people 
who look with confidence to party. Individuals may be honest, 
but gregarious integrity would be a phenomenon in politics. 
It is the collisions of party, not their visionary virtue, that is 
advantageous to a people who frequently acquire their rights 
not through the political purity, but through the rancorous 
recrimination of amibitious factions. 

On this occasion, however, Mr. Ponsonby 's steady, judi- 
cious, and plausible address exactly corresponded with the 
exigencies of the Viceroy, and gave a tinge of generous conces- 
sion to his Grace's accedence, which the volatile gratitude of 
the Irish nation for a moment mistook for genuine sincerity. 
Mr. Ponsonby sought to be considered at the same moment as 
faithful to his country and faithful to its government , a union 
which the bad policy of England had taught the Irish people 
to consider as incompatible. His manner and his speech, how- 
ever, had the effect intended. His fair and discreet reputation 
gave great weight to so gratifying a declaration ; and no im- 
pression could be more favorable to the Duke of Portland than 
that which he derived from the short, conciliating observations 
of Mr. Ponsonby. He stated, ''that he most willingly con- 
sented to the proposed amendment, and would answer that 
the noble Lord who presided in the government of Ireland, 



378 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

wished to do everything in his power for the satisfaction of 
the nation, and he knew that the noble Duke would not lose 
one moment in forwarding this remonstrance of parliament to 
the Throne, and he would use his utmost influence in obtaining 
the rights of Ireland, an object on which he had fixed his 
heart. ' ' 

This declaration was received with the loudest cheers by 
a great majority of the House ; but there existed men whose 
wise scepticism still retained their doubts of his Excellency's 
unsophisticated sincerity. They reflected justly, that the irre- 
sistible position of Ireland alone had at length induced the 
British government to this magnanimous declaration. Past 
events had indisputably decided, that whether cabinets of 
Whigs or cabinets of Tories had ruled the British councils, 
the system of its government had remained invariably adverse 
to the rights of Ireland ; high British supremacy had been the 
principles and the practice of all its administrations and of all 
its princes ; and amidst all the changes and revolutions of Eng- 
land, Ireland had never yet experienced one friendly ministry. 

On this subject Mr. Flood (one of the ablest men that Ire- 
land ever produced) was this night silent. He saw further, 
and thought deeper than any of his contemporaries ; he knew 
the world and of course was sceptical. As a popular orator, 
he was inferior to Mr. Grattan, but as a deliberate senator he 
was vastly his superior. He knew that all precedent of Brit- 
ish cabinets gave just reason to attribute this sudden transi- 
tion of English policy, not to the feelings of her liberality, 
but to the extent of her embarrassments ; and that the Duke of 
Portland's having ''set his heart" upon obtaining the rights 
of Ireland, was only giving the gloss of voluntary merit to a 
concession which was in fact a matter of absolute necessity, 
and without which his Grace foresaw that all British authority 
in Ireland would be extinguished forever. Mr. Flood's confi- 
dence, therefore, never was implicit. Mr. Grattan, on the con- 
trary, was deceived by his own zeal, and duped by his own 
honesty; and his friend, Lord Charlemont, was too courtly 
a nobleman to suspect his Grace of such consummate insin- 
cerity. But Mr. Flood even at that moment did not stand 
alone in this ungracious incredulity ; and ensuing events have 
fully confirmed the wisdom of his scepticism. 

This speech of Mr. Ponsonby's is the more remarkable, be- 
cause it was reserved for the same Mr. Ponsonby, seventeen 
years afterwards, to expose, in the clearest and most able Ian- 



In the Days of Grattan 379 

guage, tliis very duplicity of the same Duke of Portland ; and 
the open avowal of his Grace in 1799, that he had ''never" 
considered that this concession of England, in 1782, should be 
a final adjustment between the two nations, leaves no room for 
doubt as to his Grace's mental reservation, and the existence 
of a diplomatic sophistry which the Irish parliament, gulled 
by their own credulity, and enveloped in a cloud of gratitude 
and exultation, were at that moment prevented from suspect- 
ing. 

Mr. Hussey Burgh, and some other members, shortly but 
zealously supported this declaration of Irish independence; 
all was unanimity; not a symptom of opposition was mani- 
fested, but on the close of the proceeding, a circumstance not 
less remarkable than disgusting occurred. 

Mr. John Fitzgibbon, whose indigenous hostility to the 
liberties of his country had never omitted any opportunity of 
opposing its emancipation, on a sudden became metamor- 
phosed , assumed a strange and novel character, and professed 
himself not only the warmest advocate of Irish freedom, but 
a deadly and inveterate foe to that very system of British 
usurpation, to the practice of which, till that moment, he had 
himself been an undeviating and virulent supporter. 

Mr. Fitzgibbon 's embarrassment in making this declaration 
was too strong and too new in him to remain unnoticed. The 
unanimity of the House had left him no room for cavil. His 
former conduct had left him no room for consistence. His 
haughty disposition despised neutrality, and his overbearing 
mind revolted from submission; his stubborn heart, though 
humiliated, was unsubdued. But he saw that he was unsup- 
ported by his friends, and felt that he was powerless against 
his enemies. To such a mind the conflict was most dreadful ; 
a sovereign contempt for public opinion was his only solace, 
and never did he more fully require the aid of that consola- 
tion. 

This most remarkable, false, and inconsistent of all polit- 
ical recantations ever pronounced by a confirmed courtier, was 
delivered in the tone of a confirmed patriot. "No man," said 
Mr. Fitzgibbon, with an affected emphasis, * ' can say that the 
Duke of Portland has power to grant us that redress which 
the nation unanimously demands, but as Ireland is committed, 
no man, I trust, will shirk from her support, but go through, 
hand and heart, in the establishment of our liberties. As I 
iwas cautious in committing, so I am now firm in asserting 



380 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the rights of my country. My declaration, therefore, is, that 
as the nation has determined to obtain the restoration of her 
liberty, it behooves every man in Ireland to stand firm.'' Yet 
this was the Fitzgibbon who in a few years trampled on her 
liberties, and sold her constitution. 

The effect produced by this extraordinary speech from a 
man, the whole tenor of whose public life had been in hostil- 
ity to its principles, neither added weight to the measure nor 
gained character for the speaker; disgust was the most pre- 
valent sensation, but had he been a less able man, contempt 
would have been more prominent. All further debate ceased ; 
the speaker put the question on Mr. Grattan's amendment; a 
unanimous ''AYE" burst forth from every quarter of the 
house ; he repeated the question, the applause was redoubled, 
a moment of tumultuous exultation followed, and, after cen- 
turies of oppression, Ireland at length declared herself an 
INDEPENDENT NATION. 

This important event quickly reached the impatient crowds 
of every rank of society, who, without doors, awaited the 
decision of their parliament ;a cry of joy and exultation spread 
with electric rapidity through the entire city; its echo pene- 
trated to the very interior of the house, everything gave way 
to an effusion of happiness and congratulation that had never 
before been exhibited in that misgoverned country. 

Ireland from that moment assumed a new aspect ; she rose 
majestically from her ruins, and surveyed the author of her 
resurrection with admiration and with gratitude. A young 
barrister, without professional celebrity, without family con- 
nections, possesed of no considerable fortune, nor of any per- 
sonal influence, save that which talent and virtue involun- 
tarily acquire, leagued with no faction, supported individually 
by no political party, became the instrument of Providence to 
liberate his country, and in a single day achieved what the 
most able statesmen, the most elevated personages, the most 
powerful and best connected parties never could effect. Aided 
by the circumstances of the moment, he seized the opportunity 
with promptitude, vigor and perseverence ; but whilst he 
raised his country to prosperity, and himself to unexpected 
fortune and never-fading honor, he acquired vindictive 
enemies by the brilliancy of his success, and afterwards fell 
a temporary sacrifice to the perseverance of their malice and 
the dissimulations of their jealousy. 

Mr. Connolly and Sir Henry Cavendish, also, on this night; 



In the Days of Grattan 381 

as ardently supported the independence of Ireland, as if it 
was a principle grafted in their nature. Both of them had 
put their signatures to a ''life and fortune" declaration, to 
uphold the perpetual independence of their country, but it 
will appear in the progress of Irish affairs, how little reliance 
is to be placed on political declarations, where an alteration 
of circumstances or connections so frequently operates as a 
remuneration of principle. On the discussion of the Union in 
the year 1800, Sir Henry had exchanged the Duke of Devon- 
shire for an employment in the treasury, and a new planet 
had arisen to influence Mr. Connolly ; in that year both those 
gentlemen declaimed as conscientiously against the independ- 
ence of the Irish nation, as if they had never pledged their 
** lives and fortunes" for their perpetual support of it. 

It was impossible for any uninterested observer of the 
character and composition of the Irish Parliament to have 
conceived that the apparent unanimity of this night could have 
arisen from any one principle of universal action. Men 
were actuated by various motives, forming a mixed composi- 
tion of patriotism and of policy; it was the unanimous firm- 
ness of the people, and not the abstract virtue of their dele- 
gates, which achieved this revolution, nor is it possible to 
read some of the popular resolutions of that day without 
feeling admiration at the happy union of spirit, of patriotism, 
and of prudence, which characterized their proceedings. 

When the intelligence of these events was circulated 
through the nation, the joy and rejoicings of the people were 
beyond all description; every city, town, and village in Ire- 
land blazed with the emblems of exultation, and resounded 
with the shouts of triumph. The Volunteers, however, were 
not dazzled by the sunshine of the moment ; they became more 
active than more remiss. Much, indeed, was faithfully prom- 
ised, but still everything remained to be actually performed, 
and it soon appeared, that human life is not more uncertain 
in its duration than political faith precarious in its sincerity. 
The fair intentions of one government are generally called at 
least injudicious by its succesors ; political honesty has often 
vegetated in British Councils, but never yet did it survive to 
the period of maturity, and the short existence of the Duke 
of Portland's splendid administration warranted the cautious 
suspicions of the Volunteers, and afforded the succeeding min- 
istry an opportunity for attempting those insidious measures 



382 



Ireland's Crown op Thorns and Roses 



which soon afterwards characterized anew the dispositions of 
the British Cabinet. 

The parliament and the people, when the paroxysm of 
their joy had subsided, waited with some solicitude for the 
King's reply to the declaration of their independence, and a 
general suspension of public business took place until its ar- 
rival. It was, however, the first pause of confidence and tran- 
quillity that Ireland had experienced since her connection with 
Great Britain ; little could she then foresee that her new pros- 
perity was but the precursor of future evils and of scenes as 
cruel and as destructive as any she had ever before expe- 
rienced. The seeds of the Irish union were sown by the very 
same event which had procured her independence, so early as 
1784. That independence was assailed by a despotic minister 
under color of a commercial tariff. In 1789 events connected with 
the malady of the Monarch and the firm adherence of the Irish 
Parliaments to the constitutional rights of the Heir Apparent 
determined the same minister in the fatal project of extin- 
guishing the Irish legislature, and in 1798, a rebellion artifi- 
cially permitted to terrify the country, and followed by acts 
and scenes of unparalleled corruption, for a moment warped 
away the minds of men from the exercise of common reason, 
and gave power and pretence to the British Cabinet to effect 
that extinguishment at a moment of national derangement. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ENGLAND ANGERED AT IRELAND ^S SUCCESS- 
DUPLICITY— THE VOLUNTEERS PREPARE FOR ACTION. 

The foundation of Irish independence had now been laid, 
by the spirit of the Parliament and the unanimity of the peo- 
ple, and the stately structure of Irish liberty seemed likely to 
rise with solidity and magnificence. The laborers were nu- 
merous and indefatigable, and nothing was to be dreaded 
but contrariety in the plans, or jealousy among the architects- 
dangers which are proved by the sequel of her history, to be 
the true and substantial cause of Ireland's annexation. It is 
demonstrated by facts, beyond the power of refutation, that 
from the moment the British ministry found it imperatively 
necessary to submit to this declaration of Irish independence, 
no consideration was paramount in their councils to the desire 
of counteracting it. In furtherance of that object, from the 
period of the Duke of Portland's administration to that of 
Lord Cornwallis, the old system of dividing the Irish against 
each other, and profiting by their dissensions, was artfully 
pursued by the English Ministry, to re-establish their own 
supremacy; and from that moment they resolved to achieve, 
at any risk or price, that disastrous measure, which, at one 
blow, has prostrated the pride, the power, and the legislature 
of Ireland, and reduced her from the rank of a nation to the 
level of a department. But the people had now no leisure for 
suspicious forethought or mature reflection, and the interval 
between the declaration of independence and the reply of his 
Majesty to that declaration, though a period of deep anxiety, 
neither awakened serious doubts, nor produced implicit confi- 
dence. 

An adjournment for three weeks was now proposed in the 
Commons, to give time for the arrival of His Majesty's an- 
swer to their Address and Declaration. This motion, though 
it gave rise to a conversation rather than a debate, produced 
one of the most singular political phenomenons that had ever 
appeared in the history of any nation. 

Mr. John Scott, then Attorney General, afterwards Lord 
Clonmel, whose despotic conduct had previously given rise 
to so many and severe animadversions, took advantage on this 

383 



384 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

occasion to recant his former and favorite political principle, 
that "might constitutes right." He now declared his firm 
and unqualified adherence to the claims of Ireland, in terms 
which, a week before, he would have prosecuted as a se- 
ditious libel, and tendered his large fortune toward a general 
fund, to enforce from Great Britain the rights of his country, 
if force should become necessary. 

He said that he now felt it indispensable for him to 
throw off all equivocal and mysterious silence, and declared 
as his unchangeable opinion, that Great Britain never had 
any right whatever to bind his country, and that any acts she 
had ever done for that purpose were decided usurpations. 
That if the tenure of his office of Attorney General depended 
upon the maintenance of doctrines injurious to the rights and 
independence of Ireland, it was an infamous tenure; and if 
the Parliament of Great Britain were determined to lord it 
over Ireland, he was resolved not to be their villain in execut- 
ing their tyranny. That if matters should proceed to the ex- 
tremity to which he feared they were verging, he should not 
be an insignificant subscriber to the fund for defending their 
common rights. That a life of much labor, together with the 
blessing of Providence, and what is commonly called good 
luck, had given him a landed property of £5,000 per year, and 
an office of great emolument, all of which should certainly be 
devoted to the service of his country. That it would be dis- 
graceful, for the paltry emoluments of an office, to stand 
watching the vibrations of the balance, when he had deter- 
mined to throw his life and fortune into the scale. ' ' I know, ' ' 
concluded the Attorney General, ''that the public mind is on 
fire ; I know that the determination of the people is to be free, 
and I adopt their determination. ' ' 

A speech of so strong and stormy a nature, never having 
before been uttered by any Minister or Law Officer of the 
British Empire, nor even by any member of the Irish Par- 
liament, created a sensation which it is scarcely possible to 
describe. One sentence conveyed a volume of information. 

"If matters proceed to the extremities to which I fear they 
are verging," was a direct declaration of mistrust in the Gov- 
ernment he served ; and such a speech, made in Parliament by 
the first confidential executive Law Officer of the Crown, pos- 
sessed a character of mystery and great importance. 

The dread of an insurrection in Ireland was thus, in direct 
terms, announced by the King's Attorney General, and by his 



In the Days of Grattan 385 

intrepid determination to risk his life and fortune to support 
its objects, he afforded good reason to apprehend that his 
Majesty's reply was not likely to be such as would cultivate 
tranquillity, and left no doubt that the Attorney Greneral fore- 
boded an unwise reluctance in the British Cabinet, to a meas- 
ure so vital to the peace, perhaps to the integrity, of the 
British Empire. This conduct of Mr. Scott, coupled with the 
previous secession of Mr. Fitzgibbon, must be looked on as 
among the most extraordinary occurrences of these, or any 
other, times in Ireland. 

In the history of nations and of parliaments, there is not 
another instance of two such men, publicly professing and 
practicing the principles of arbitrary power, being so humbled, 
and reduced to the abject condescension of feigning a public 
virtue they had theretofore but ridiculed, and assuming a 
fictitious patriotism, the result, at best, of their fears or of 
their policy. 

However, be the motive what it might, that most unpre- 
cedented conduct taught the British Government that they 
could no longer trifle with Ireland. Their power was then 
extinct, and no course remained but that of instantly relin- 
quishing their long vaunted supremacy, and surrendering at 
discretion to the just demands of a determined and potent 
people ; and the splendid, though temporary triumph achieved 
by Ireland, affords a glorious precedent for oppressed nations, 
and an instructive lesson for arrogant usurpation. 

Immediately on this unexpected turn, the Duke of Port- 
land sent off two despatches to England ; one to the Cabinet 
as a public document, and the other, a private and confidential 
note to Mr. Fox. The latter document explained his reasons 
for the necessity he felt of acceding, without any appearance 
of reluctance, to any demands which might at that moment 
be made by the Irish Parliament; but intimated ''that so 
strong a difference of opinion appeared to exist between some 
gentlemen of weight that arrangements more favorable to 
England might possibly be effected through their contro- 
versies, although he could not venture to propose such, were 
they perfectly unanimous. He stated, in conclusion, that he 
would omit no opportunity of cultivating his connection with 
the Earl of Charlemont, who appeared entirely disposed to 
place confidence in his administration, and to give a proper 
tone to the armed bodies over which he had the most con- 
siderable influence/^ 



38G Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

So skillfully did he act upon these suggestions, that he in- 
veigled the good but feeble Earl Charlemont entirely into his 
trammels, and as long as his Grace remained in the Irish Gov- 
ernment, he not only much influenced that nobleman, but kept 
him at arms length from some of the ablest statesmen of the 
country, without their perceiving the insidious power that 
caused the separation. 

The other Ministers adopted the same principles, and they 
did not despair, by plausible conduct, according to the Duke 
of Portland's policy, to temporize Tvith all parties, of playing 
off the people and the Parliament imperceptibly against each 
other ; and, by gradually diminishing their mutual confidence, 
bringing both to a dependence upon the good faith of the 
British Ministry, and so indisposing the Irish Parliament 
from insisting upon any measures which might humble the 
pride, or alarm the interests of the British nation. 

The British Cabinet had certainly great embarrassments 
to encounter. They had the difficult step to take of gratify- 
ing the claims of Ireland without affecting the egotism of 
Great Britain. But the relative interests of the two countries 
being in many points fundamentally repugnant, the dilemma 
of Ministers was extremely embarrassing. It was doubly in- 
creased by a declaration of rights, and a positive demand, 
which anticipated the credit of a spontaneous generosity; an 
advantage which was now lost to them forever. Their volun- 
tary favors would now be changed to compulsory grants, the 
extent of which they could neither foresee nor control. 

While the British Cabinet and the Irish Viceroy actively 
corresponded, the Irish nation was not idle. No relaxation 
was permitted in the warlike preparations of the Volunteer 
army. Reviews and discipline were continued with uninter- 
mitting ardor and emulation. Their artillery was daily exer- 
cised in the Phoenix Park, near Dublin. Camp equipage was 
preparing for actual service, and on the day to which the 
parliament adjourned, the whole of the Volunteer force of 
the metropolis was under arms, and fully prepared for the 
alternative (which the decision of his Majesty's Cabinet, 
through the speech of its Viceroy, might impose upon the peo- 
ple) either to return to their homes for the peaceful enjoy- 
ment of their rights or instantly take the field. Musters had 
been ordered, to ascertain the probable numbers of Volunteers 
ready for immediate active service. The returns had in- 
creased from the former census to about 124,000 officers and 



In the Days of Grattan , 387 

soldiers, of whom upwards of 100,000 effectives, well armed 
and disciplined, and owning no superior but God and their 
country, would, on the first sound of an hostile trumpet, have 
rushed with enthusiasm to the standards of independence. The 
Volunteer regiments and corps were commanded by gentle- 
men of rank and consideration in the country, and disciplined 
by retired officers of the British army; the sergeants being 
chiefly veteran soldiers who had fought in the American cam- 
paigns, and learned from their own defeats the powers of a 
people determined to obtain their freedom. The whole dis- 
posable military force of Great Britain was at that period 
inadequate to combat one week with the Volunteers of Ire- 
land, composing an army which could be increased, at a call, 
by a million of enthusiasts ; and which, in case a contest had 
arisen, would have also been liberally recruited by the deser- 
tion of the Irish soldiers from the British army— nearly one- 
third of that army was composed of Irishmen. The British 
navy, too, was then also manned by what were generally de- 
nominated British tars, but a large proportion of whom were 
in fact sailors of Irish birth and Irish feelings, ready to shed 
their blood in the service of Great Britain whilst she remained 
the friend of Ireland, but as ready to seize and to steer the 
British navy into Irish ports, if she declared against their 
country— and thus it will ever be. 

The safety of England was then clearly in the hands of 
Ireland, and one hostile step, at that perilous crisis of the 
two nations, must have terminated their unity, and of course 
the power of the British empire. But the Cabinet at length 
considered that resistance to the just demands of Ireland 
would be unavailing, and that she was then too powerful for 
England to hazard an insurrection, which, if once excited, it 
would have been impossible to suppress. 

Too cautious to risk a danger so imminent, they yielded 
to existing circumstances, and determined to concede; a sys- 
tem of conduct, which is called perfidy in private life and 
policy by Governments, which has been very generally and 
very successfully resorted to in important political dilemmas, 
and they adopted the low and cunning course of yielding with 
affected candor, and counteracting with deep duplicity. 

The Cabinet reflected, also, that times and circumstances 
cannot always remain unchanged, and that the political vicis- 
situdes to which every State is subject frequently enable con- 
ceding powers to re-assnme usurpation; and, when restore^ 



388 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

to strength and vigor, again to forget the law of nations and 
of justice, and explain away or deny the spirit of those en- 
gagements which their feebleness had contracted. The events 
which have since occurred in Ireland, and the conduct and 
equivocation of the British Ministers in 1799 and 1800, proved 
to the world that such were the premeditated and ulterior 
views of the British Cabinet, in 1782; and that the Duke of 
Portland was well aware of its objects, and freely lent him- 
self to their preparation. 

Mr. Fox never had any especial predilection for Ireland. 
He was ignorant equally of her rights and her localities, and 
he considered her only as the segment of a great circle, which 
he labored to encompass. He wielded the grievances of Ire- 
land only as a weapon of offence against the ministry. He 
was a great man, with a popular ambition, and assumed the 
hereditary title of Whig, when its purest principles had near- 
ly become obsolete. Mr. Pitt had in view the very same object, 
to rule, and they only differed in the means of affecting it. 
The one wished to rise upon the shoulders of the people ; the 
other, to be elevated upon those of the aristocracy. But the 
ambition of both was to govern the Empire. Their rivalry 
was of party, and their struggle was for power, but the inter- 
nal prosperity of Ireland, as a distinct abstract consideration, 
gave not one hour's solicitude to either one or the other of 
those celebrated Ministers, though its resources were in part 
an object to both. 

The Duke of Portland was not of sufficient talent or weight 
to lead the Ministry, but he had enough of both to be an effi- 
cient accessory. A man of plain, fair, undistinguished repu- 
tation can effect important acts of duplicity, with less sus- 
picion and more facility than more prominent and energetic 
personages, and when the moment of development arrives, he 
can plead the honesty of his character, and the error of his 
judgment; or,, at the worst, he may gain a great point, and 
can only lose a narrow reputation. 

These observations may be interesting, as decidedly appli- 
cable to the administration of the Duke of Portland. His 
Grace's conduct and speeches on the question of the Union, 
in 1800, leave no doubt that the whole tenor of his conduct, in 
1782, must have been a premeditated tissue of dissimilation. 

The Irish House met, pursuant to the adjournment, on 
the 27th of May, 1782, a day teeming with importance to the 
fate of Ireland and the character of Great Britain. It is not 



In the Days of Grattan 389 

easy to imagine the solicitude and impatience with which the 
people awaited the decision of Great Britain on its claims. 

On the morning of that memorable day, the Volunteers 
were under arms at an early hour. Their artillery, under 
the order of James Napper Tandy, was stationed on the quays, 
and commanded all the bridges leading from the Military 
Barracks to the House of Parliament. The other corps, horse 
and foot, were posted at different stations of communication 
in the city, while some regular troops, formed in treble files, 
lined the streets for the passage of the Lord Lieutenant. But 
though neither party knew what would be the result of that 
day's proceedings, nor whether war or peace would be pro- 
claimed by the British Ministry, not a symptom of hostile feel- 
ing appeared on any side. The Volunteers and the regular 
troops saluted each other as they passed, and reciprocally 
showed every mark of military courtesy. The strictest order 
prevailed, and the whole, by a combination most interesting 
and extraordinary, formed a scene to which history affords 
no parallel. 

The Duke of Portland had not a very dignified demeanor, 
but unfortunately, everybody then considered him as a man 
of political integrity. His time, during the recess, had been 
skillfully employed, to gain upon the country gentlemen by 
flattering attention and courtly blandishment. 

His Grace had learned, from Earl Charlemont, the char- 
acter of Mr. Grattan, before he saw him. He was fully ap- 
prised of his spirit and patriotism, and knew that neither 
could be conquered; but he conceived that by operating on 
the moderation and generous confidence of that virtuous Irish- 
man, he might eventually divide the Parliament, chill the gen- 
eral enthusiasm of the people, and effect the objects of the 
British Government, and, before the meeting of Parliament, 
his Grace had made great progi'ess in exciting shades of differ- 
ence in the opinions of those who should have been unanimous. 
A premature gratitude and credulous confidence had already 
prepared the House for his reception, and he delivered the 
speech from the throne, with a well affected honesty of em- 
phasis, and an imposing appearance of individual gratifica- 
tion. 

The Viceroy's speech gave rise to a debate of the very 
highest importance, not only as affecting the interests and 
feelings of that day, but as influencing the subsequent events 
and destiny of the Irish nation. 



390 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

'*My Lords and Gentlemen: It gives me the utmost satis- 
faction, that the first time I have occasion to address yon, I 
find myself enabled, by the magnanimity of the King and 
the wisdom of the Parliament of Great Britain, to assure you 
that immediate attention has been paid to your representa- 
tions, and that the British Legislature have concurred in 
resolution to remove the causes of your discontents and jeal- 
ousies, are united in a desire to gratify every wish expressed 
in your late Addresses to the Throne. 

''If anything could add to the pleasure I feel in giving you 
those assurances, it is that I can accompany them with my 
congratulations on the important and decisive victory gained 
by the fleets of his Majesty over those of the common enemy 
in the West Indies, and by the signal advantage obtained by 
his Majesty's arms in the Island of Ceylon and on the coast 
of Coromandel. 

"Bj the papers which, in obedience to his Majesty's com- 
mands, I have directed to be laid before you, you will receive 
the most convincing testimonials of the cordial reception which 
your representatives have met with from the Legislature of 
Great Britain; but his Majesty, whose first and most anxious 
wish is to exercise His Eoyal Prerogative in such a manner 
as may be most conducive to the welfare of his faithful sub- 
jects, has further given it me in command to assure you of 
His gracious disposition to give His Eoyal Assent to Acts to 
prevent the suppression of Bills in the Privy Council of this 
Kingdom, and the alternation of them anywhere, and to limit 
the duration of the Act for the better Eegulation and Accom- 
modation of His Majesty's Forces in this Kingdom, to the 
term of two years. 

''These benevolent intentions of His Majesty, and the 
willingness of his Parliament of Great Britain to second his 
gracious purposes, are unaccompanied by any stipulation or 
condition whatever. 

"The good faith, the generosity, and the honor of this na- 
tion affords them the surest pledge of a corresponding dis- 
position, on your part, to promote and perpetuate the har- 
mony, the stability, and the glory of the Empire. 

"On my own part, I entertain not the least doubt but that 
the same spirit which urged you to share the freedom of Great 
Britain, will confirm you in your determination to share her 
fate also, standing and falling with the British Empire." 

Mr, Grattan immediately rose. His unsuspecting and 



In the Days of Grattan 391 

grateful mind, though congenial to the honest liberality of a 
patriot, was quite too conceding and inexperienced to meet 
the ways and wiles of deceptions statesmen. Misled by the 
apparent sincerity of that speech, and the plain and plausible 
demeanor of the Duke of Portland, he lost sight of every- 
thing but confidence and gratitude, and left to deeper politi- 
cians to discover the snare that lay concealed amidst the 
soothing and honorable language of the Viceroy. 

He said: ''That as Great Britain had given up every 
claim to authority over Ireland, he had not the least idea 
that she should be also bound to make any declaration that 
she had formerly usurped that power. This would be a fool- 
ish caution, a dishonorable condition. The nation that in- 
sists upon the humiliation of another is a foolish nation, and 
Ireland is not a foolish nation. I move you, to assure his 
Majesty of our unfeigned affection to His Royal Person and 
Government, that we feel, most sensibly, the attention our 
representations have received from the magnanimity of His 
Majesty, and the wisdom of the Parliament of Great Britain; 
to assure His Majesty, that we conceive the resolution for an 
unqualified, unconditional repeal of the 6th George the First 
to be a measure of consummate wisdom and justice, suitable 
to the dignity and eminence of both Nations, exalting the char- 
acter of both, and furnishing a perpetual pledge of mutual 
amity; to assure His Majesty that we are sensibly affected 
by his virtuous determination to accede to the wishes of His 
faithful subjects, and to exercise His Royal prerogative in 
the manner most conducive to their welfare. That, gratified 
in those particulars, we do assure His Majesty that no consti- 
tutional question between the hvo nations will any longer exist 
to interrupt their harmony, and that Great Britain, as she ap- 
proved of our firmness, may rely on our affection, and that 
we remember, and do repeat our determination, to stand or 
fall with the British nation." 

When Mr. Grattan concluded the Address, which was 
seconded by Mr. Brownlow, a most animated and interesting, 
though desultory debate, immediately ensued— a debate too 
much connected with the subsequent transactions on the Union 
not to be particularly noticed in this stage of the history. 

The Recorder of, and member for, Dublin, Sir Samuel 
Bradstreet, a strong-minded, public-spirited man, an able law- 
yer and independent Member of Parliament— of a rough, de- 
cisive, firm deportm^ent— was the first who ventured to insin- 



392 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

uate his dissent from the Address, and his suspicions of the 
Duke's sincerity. He entirely objected to that sweep- 
ing clause of Mr. Grattan's Address— " That all constitutional 
questions between the two countries were at an end." He 
stated that many were not yet touched upon, many that were 
vital to Irish independence still remained unnoticed; for he 
insisted that the Irish Parliament actually sat at that mo- 
ment under an English Statute, and that the Address, as 
moved, was in some instance premature— in others too com- 
prehensive—in all, defective. Subsequent events have since 
proved the soundness and the acuteness of his judgment and 
aforesight. 

Mr. Flood said but a few words, and they were rather in- 
sinuating than insisting on his dissent. He started some diflfi- 
culty on the subject of external legislation ; he expressed his 
opinon, that matters were not yet sufficiently advanced to 
form a decided judgment upon the extent and modifications 
of the proposed arrangements; but it was obvious that this 
great man was neither confident nor satisfied, and that he con- 
ceived, that though the chief demand had been made, and that 
grant acceded to, yet that it would require profound considera- 
tion, and a steady, comprehensive system, to secure the tenure. 
He publicly anticipated nothing, but his own want of faith in 
the British Cabinet was obvious and comprehensive. 

Mr. David Walshe, an able, pertinacious lawyer, coura- 
geous and not conciliating, was a still more determined 
sceptic. He had a clear head, a suspicious, perverse mind, 
and a temper that never w^ould outstretch itself to meet pacific 
objects. He debated well, but was too intemperate to acquire 
or maintain a general popularity. A part of his speech on 
this memorable night is also of great importance. He fol- 
lowed Sir Samuel Bradstreet on the point of external legisla- 
tion, and concluded with these remarkable expressions : 

''I repeat it, that until England declares unequivocally, 
by an act of her own legislature, that she had no right, in any 
instance, to make laws to bind Ireland, the usurped power of 
English legislation never can be considered by us as relin- 
quished. We want not the concessions of England to restore 
us our liberties. If we are true to ourselves, we possess the 
fortitude, we possess the will, and, thank God, we possess the 
power, to assert our rights as men, and accomplish our inde- 
pendence as a nation." 

The gauntlet was now thrown, the vital question was 



In the Days of Grattan 393 

started— England was put on her defence, and Ireland on her 
trial. 

The great point of confirming Irish independence and the 
constitution being once started, never could be relinquished; 
it must be decided— the suspicion of English sincerity once 
raised, must be satisfied; and it appeared in a moment, that 
Mr. Grattan 's address could never be considered either secure 
or conclusive. But even those who thought so, did not con- 
ceive that the moment had as yet arrived when that subject 
should be so warmly discussed. 

Those who feared that a difference at so early a period 
might defeat all their expectation, chose rather to accede to an 
address they did not approve of, than hazard a dis-union 
which might never be remedied. 

Mr. Yelverton strongly recommended unanimity at that 
moment. It seemed, for prudential reasons, to be the general 
wish, and Mr. Fitzpatrick, the Viceroy's secretary, artfully 
seized on the moment of inconsiderate gratitude, and threw 
out a defiance to those who endeavored to diminish its unanim- 
ity. This to such a temper as Mr. Walshe's, had the effect 
intended, of causing a division— and the skillful secretary suc- 
ceeded in his object. 

On the division, the Eecorder and Mr. Walshe alone 
divided on the minority, and Mr. Grattan 's address was trium- 
phantly carried, with all its imperfections ; and a short period 
proved that these imperfections were neither few nor unim- 
portant. The House adjourned amidst the universal acclama- 
tions of the ignorant and credulous people, and the constitu- 
tional arrangements between the two countries were fatally 
supposed, from the tenor of the speech and the address, to 
have been entirely and forever arranged to their mutual satis- 
faction. 

It is here proper to pause and reflect upon the embarras- 
sing situation into which this day's debate had thrown both 
nations; an embarrassment which, since that day, has never 
yet been completely terminated, and probably never will. 

The transcendant merits of Mr. Grattan, the unparalleled 
brilliancy of his language, in moving the declaration of rights, 
his firmness and his patriotism had raised him above all his 
countrymen. That declaration, it was believed, had restored 
the liberties of his country, and given him a just claim to all 
the rewards and honors which even the glowing gratitude of 
that country could confer upon him. But, unfortunately, his 



394 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



own honesty led him to a mistaken confidence in that of 
others. The courtly patriotism of Earl Charlemont, always 
inclining him to a blind principle of conciliation, had its in- 
fluence on Mr. Grattan, who was a statesman, great in prin- 
ciple, but inefficient in detail; and the moderation of Lord 
Charlemont was not ineffective nor merely passive, when re- 
straining the vigor of a mind that seemed to be created to 
think greatly and act decidedly, only upon great and decisive 
occasions. 




Composed from Book of Kellt. 



CHAPTER X. 

CREDULITY OP THE lEISH PARLIAMENT— POPULARITY OF HENRY 
GRAITAN— HE IS OFEEBED LARGE REWARDS FOR HIS SERVICES, 

It is as extraordinary as it is true, that the weakness and 
foibles of Irish character were more strikingly displayed dur- 
ing this important discussion than upon any former occasion. 
A generous, ardent, credulous, unstatesmanlike sensibility ap- 
peared to have seized upon the whole assembly, and even the 
natural quickness of perception and acuteness of intellect, 
which the members of that House displayed on ordinary and 
trivial subjects, seemed totally to have forsaken them during 
this memorable debate— of more vital importance to the nation 
than any other that had taken place in the Irish Parliament. 

The country gentlemen of Ireland, at all times bad casuists 
and worse lawyers, appeared on this occasion to close both 
their ears and their eyes, and to resign, with one accord, all 
exercise of judgment and discrimination. The word *' una- 
nimity" operated as a talisman amongst them, and silenced all 
objections. The very important observations of Sir Samuel 
Bradstreet and of Mr. Walshe were hardly listened to with 
patience. Mr. Flood himself seemed to be overwhelmed and 
manacled; and those axioms and that reasoning which were 
ultimately acceded to and adopted even by the British Min- 
isters themselves, were on this night considered as a species 
of treason against the purity of the British Government, and 
the sincerity of the Irish Viceroy. No voice but that of con- 
gratulation, joy and confidence, could make itself heard. No 
suspicions durst be suggested, no murmurs durst be uttered. 
The scene was new to Ireland, and exultation took precedence 
for a time, of both reason and reflection. 

Beauchamp Bagenal, representative for Carlow county, so 
soon as the flurry of mutual congratulations had a little sub- 
sided in the House, proposed a motion well adapted to that 
moment, and most happily coincident with the sentiments of 
the people. How far it had been premeditated, or arose from 
the impulse of the moment, no person acquainted with the 
character and eccentricities of Mr. Bagenal could possibly 
determine. 

He was one of those men, who, born to a large inheritance, 

395 



396 Ieeland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

and having no profession to interrupt their propensities, gen- 
erally made in those times the grand tour of Europe, as the 
finishing parts of a gentleman's education. Mr. Bagenal fol- 
lowed the general course, and on that tour had made himself 
very conspicuous. He had visited every capital of Europe, 
and had exhibited the native original character of the Irish 
gentleman at every place he visited. In the splendor of his 
travelling establishment, he quite eclipsed the petty poten- 
tates with whom Germany was garnished. His person was 
fine, his manners open and generous, his spirit high, and his 
liberality profuse. During his tour, he had performed a va- 
riety of feats which were emblazoned in Ireland, and endeared 
him to his countrymen. He had fought a prince, jilted a prin- 
cess, intoxicated the Doge of Venice, carried off a Duchess 
from Madrid, scaled the walls of a convent in Italy, narrowly 
escaped the Inquisition at Lisbon, concluded his exploits by 
a celebrated fencing match at Paris, and he returned to Ire- 
land with a sovereign contempt for all continental men and 
manners, and an inveterate antipathy to all despotic kings 
and arbitrary governments. 

Domesticated in his own mansion at Dunleckny, sur- 
rounded by a numerous and devoted tenantry, and possessed 
of a great territory, Mr. Bagenal determined to spend the resi- 
due of his days on his native soil, according to the usages and 
customs of country gentlemen, and he was shortly afterwards 
returned a representative to Parliament for the county of 
Carlow, by universal acclamation. 

Though Mr. Bagenal did not take any active part in the 
general business of the Irish Parliament, he at least gave it 
a good example of public spirit and high-minded independence. 
His natural talents were far above mediocrity, but his singu- 
larities, in themselves extravagant, were increased by the in- 
temperance of those times, and an excellent capacity was neu- 
tralized by inordinate dissipation. Prodigally hospitable, 
irregular, extravagant, uncertain, vivacious; the chase, the 
turf, the sod and the bottle divided a groat portion of his in- 
tellect between them, and generally left for the use of Parlia- 
ment only so much as he could spare from his other occupa- 
tions. 

However, in supporting the independence and prosperity 
of Ireland, he always stood in the foremost ranks. 

Liberal and friendly, but obstinate and refractory, above 
all his contemporaries, he had a perfect indifference for the 



In the Days of Grattan 397 

opinions of the world, when they at all differed from his own, 
and he never failed to perform whatever came uppermost in 
his thoughts, with the most perfect contempt as to the notions 
which might be formed either of his rectitude or impropriety. 

He was one of the first country gentlemen who raised a 
Volunteer regiment in the county of Carlow. He commanded 
several military corps, and was one of the last Volunteer Col- 
onels in Ireland who could be prevailed upon to discontinue 
the reviews of their regiments, or to relinquish that noble, pa- 
triotic, and unprecedented institution. However, he was, on 
this occasion, as politically short-sighted as he was nationally 
credulous. He could see nothing but sincerity in the Viceroy, 
honor in the British Cabinet, and an eternal cordiality be- 
tween the two nations ; and before the constitutional arrange- 
ment was well begun, he fancied it was completely concluded. 
His admiration of Mr. Grattan was unqualified and extrava- 
gant, and it was with an honest zeal and pure sincerity he 
rose to propose a measure, at that jDcriod the most popular 
and gratifying to the Irish nation. 

Having passed many eulogiums on Mr. Grattan 's services 
to Ireland, he gave notice of an intended motion, ' ' that a com- 
mittee should be appointed, to consider and report what sum 
the Irish Parliament should grant, to build a suitable mansion 
and purchase an estate for their deliverer. ' ' 

In prefacing this notice, Mr. Bagenal, full of candor and 
credulity, used some expressions, so unfortunately anti-pro- 
phetic^ as to render them worthy of marked observation. He 
said that Mr. Grattan had saved the country from an iron 
age, and unequivocally restored a golden one to his own coun- 
try forever. ''By our affectionate alliance with Great Brit- 
ain, we shall not only be benefited ourselves, but shall see a 
beloved sister revive from her misfortunes. This great man 
has crowned the work forever ; under his auspices the throne 
of freedom is fixed on a basis so firm, and which will always 
be so well supported by the influence the people must acquire 
under his system, that, with the help of God, there is no dan- 
ger, even of Parliament itself ever being able to shake it ; nor 
shall any Parliament be ever again profanely styled omnip- 
otent." 

Mr. Grattan attempted to make some observations, but 
his voice was drowned in the general applause ; and the House 
adjourned without further observations. 

He alone now occupied the entire hearts of the people. 



398 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

They liad no room for any other individual. Almost 
frantic with gratitude to their deliverer, they cried out that 
the doctrines of Molyneux had triumphed in the same place 
where they had before been consigned to infamy. But the 
day of those pure and lofty feelings had passed away. A 
broken down constitution seldom recovers its pristine elas- 
ticity; and that enthusiastic, proud, patriotic spirit which 
signalized the Irish nation in 1782, driven to its tomb by 
misrule and by misfortune, can never rise again but on some 
congenial crisis. 

The British Ministry and Parliament now began to feel 
their own weakness. Their intolerance degenerated into fear ; 
and responsibility began to stare them in the face. The loss 
of America had been got over by their predecessors without 
an impeachment; but that of Ireland would not have passed 
over with the same impunity. The British Cabinet had 
already signed the capitulation, and thought it impossible to 
carry it too soon into execution. Bills to enact the conces- 
sions demanded by Ireland were therefore prepared with an 
expedition nearly bordering on precipitancy. The 6th of 
George the First, declaratory of, and establishing the su- 
premacy of England, and the eternal dependence of Ireland 
on the Parliament and Cabinet of Great Britain, was now 
hastily repealed, without debate, or any qualification by the 
British Legislature. This repeal received the royal assent, 
and a copy was instantly transmitted to the Irish Viceroy, 
and communicated by circulars to the Volunteer commanders. 

Chap. LIII. An Act, to repeal an act made in the sixth year 
of the reign of his late Majesty King George the First, in- 
tituled. An Act for the better securing the dependency of the 
kingdom of Ireland upon the crown of Great Britain. 

Whereas, an act was passed in the sixth year of the reign 
of His late Majesty King George the First, intituled: An 
Act for the better securing the dependency of the kingdom of 
Ireland upon the croivn of Great Britain ; may it please your 
Most Excellent Majesty, that it may be enacted, and be it en- 
acted, by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the 
consent and advice of the lords spiritual and temporal, and 
commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the 
authority of the same, that from and after the passing of this 
Act, the above mentioned Act, and, the several matters and 
things therein contained, shall he, and is, and are hereby re- 
pealed. 



In the Days of Grattan 399 

Thus, tlie doctrine of Blackstone, that venerated Druid of 
English jurisprudence, who by his dictum had tried to seal 
the slavery of the Irish people, was surrendered as unconsti- 
tutional, and renounced by the very same legislature that had 
enacted it. As England drooped, Ireland raised her head; 
and for a moment she was arrayed with all the exterior in- 
signia of an independent nation. 

On the 30th of May, 1782, Mr. Bagenal resumed the subject 
of the reward to Mr. Grattan ; and after a short but animated 
speech, moved that ''£100,000 should be granted by parlia- 
ment, to purchase an estate, and build a suitable mansion, as 
the reward of gratitude by the Irish nation, for his eminent 
services to his country." No member could directly oppose 
a measure so merited, so popular, and so honorable to the 
nation. No absolute murmur was heard; but the magnitude 
of the sum gave rise to many incidental observations; and 
some friends of Mr. Grattan endeavored to impress the 
house with the idea that he was altogether adverse to the 
measure, and conceived that his honors and gratification 
would be greater by the feeling of having served his country 
without reward than that arising from its pure and unsophis- 
ticated enjoyemnt. 

This idea in modern times, and under Mr. Grattan 's pe- 
culiar circumstances, was considered less the result of a true 
pride than of a patriotic vanity. Eoman precedents were not 
applicable to Ireland, and his paternal estates were not suf- 
ficiently ample to support so distinguished a man in the dig- 
nity of his station. And the wisest friends of Mr. Grattan 
considered such a grant not as a mercenary recompense, but 
the reward of a patriotic virtue, conferred by the gratitude of 
a nation to elevate a deliverer. 

While the House seemed to hesitate as to the wisest course 
of carrying the proposed grant into immdiate execution, a 
most unexpected circumstance took place, which, though in 
its results of no important consequence, forms one of the most 
interesting anecdotes of Irish events, develops the insidious 
artifices to which the Government resorted, and forms an epi- 
sode without a precedent in ancient or modern annals. 

Mr. Thomas Connolly, who, as a leading member of the 
"Whig party, had entirely connected himself with the Duke of 
Portland, and though not holding any ministerial office, was 
a Privy Councillor, and considered to be particularly confi- 
dential in the councils of the Viceroy, after many eulogiums 



400 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

upon Mr. Grattan's unparalleled services to Ireland, stated, 
' ' That the Duke of Portland felt equally with the Irish peo- 
ple, the high value of those services ; and that he was author- 
ized by the Lord Lieutenant to express in the strongest terms, 
the sense he entertained of the public virtue of Mr. Grattan, 
and of his eminent and important services to Ireland ; and as 
the highest proof he could give of his admiration and respect 
for that distinguished personage, he (the Lord Lieutenant) 
begged to offer, as a part of the intended grant to Mr. Grat- 
tan, the Viceregal Palace in the Phoenix Park, to be settled 
on Mr. Grattan and his heirs forever, as a suitable residence 
for so meritorious a person." 

The Viceroy of His Britannic Majesty offering to a pri- 
vate individual a grant forever of the King's best palace in 
Ireland was repugnant to the principle of Monarchial Gov- 
ernments; while Mr. Bagenal's proposal of a grant by the 
House of Commons, as a reward for the public services of one 
of their own independent members, appeared to the Viceroy 
as making the people everything and the administration noth- 
ing. He saw clearly that the public spirit was irresistible, 
and that the grant must pass ; and the Viceroy determined, at 
any sacrifice, to give it a tinge of ministerial generosity, and 
thereby deaden as much as possible the brilliancy and effect 
of a popular proceeding. He knew that if his proposal 
through Mr. Connolly should be accepted, the grant would 
have very considerably changed its democratic complexion, 
the prerogative would be somewhat preserved, and Mr. Grat- 
tan no longer considered as deriving his reward exclusively 
from the gratitude of his countrymen ; the Crown would have 
its share in a claim to his acknowledgments; and thus the 
merit of the favor be divided between the people and the 
minister. 

This magnificent and unexampled offer, at first view, ap- 
peared flattering and showy; at the second, it appeared de- 
ceptions ; and at the third, inadmissible. Delicacy prevented 
any debate on the subject, and it would have died away with- 
out a remark or observation, and would have been rejected 
by a judicious silence, had not the indiscretion of Colonel 
Fitzpatrick betrayed the whole feeling and duplicity of the 
Government, and opened the eyes of many to the jealousy and 
designs of his Grace's administration. Though the secretary 
was extremely disposed to serve Mr. Grattan individually, 
the entire failure of the plan, and the frigid manner in which 



In the Days of Grattan 401 

the royal offer had been received on every side, hurt his of- 
ficial pride, and affected him extremely. He recollected his 
ministry bnt forgot his discretion, and he could no longer re- 
strain himself from some observations equally ill-timed and 
injudicious. 

Colonel Fitzpatrick was the brother of the Earl of Upper 
Ossory. Though not an expert diplomatist, he was well se- 
lected to make his way amongst the Irish gentry, and conse- 
quently carry into effect the objects of the British ministers, 
and the deceptions of the Duke of Portland. He was in- 
genuous and convivial, friendly and familiar, and theoret- 
ically honest, even in politics. His name was musical to the 
ear of that short-sighted community (the Irish gentry), and 
his casual indiscretions in Parliament were kindly attributed 
to his undesigning nature; and of all qualities, an appear- 
ance of unguarded openness is most imposing upon the Irish 
people. But the office of a minister or of a secretary is too 
well adapted to alter, if not the nature, at least the habits of 
a private gentleman; and, as a matter of course, he relin- 
quishes his candor when he comm.ences his diplomacy. 

Whatever his individual feelings might have been as Colo- 
nel Fitzpatrick, it is impossible that in his capacity of sec- 
retary, Mr. Bagenal's motion could have given him any grati- 
fication. He declared that "he conceived the power of re- 
warding eminent men was one of the noblest of the Royal 
Prerogatives, which were certainly a part of the constitution. 
He did not wish to be considered as giving a sullen acquies- 
cence, but he conceived that marks of favor of this nature 
always appertained to the Crown alone, and he should have 
wished that this grant had come from the Eoyal hand ; but, 
as the man was unprecedented, so was the grant; and he 
hoped this would not be considered as a precedent on future 
occasions." 

By these few but comprehensive observations of the sec- 
retary, the apparent magnificent liberality of the Viceroy ap- 
peared in its real character, and dwindled into a narrow sub- 
terfuge of ministerial jealousy. Mr. Connolly appeared to 
have traveled out of his station, and officiously to have as- 
sumed the office of a minister, for a deceptive purpose, and 
lent himself to a little artifice, to trepan the Parliament and 
humiliate the people. 

By this rejected tender the Whig administration gained no 
credit ; they evinced a disposition to humble the Crown with- 



402 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

out elevating the people, and to wind the laurels of both 
around their own temples. 

The Viceroy considered a grant by the Commons too demo- 
cratic; and the Parliament considered the Viceroy's tender 
too ministerial. Mr. Grattan was a servant of the Irish peo- 
ple, and was utterly unconnected with the British Govern- 
ment. In every point of view, therefore, the Viceroy's offer, 
at that moment, was im]3roper, and derogatory alike to the 
Crown and the individual. The Viceroy of Ireland propos- 
ing on behalf of the King of England, to Ireland's great pa- 
triot to reward his services for having emancipated his coun- 
try from the domination of Great Britain, was an incident as 
extraordinary as had ever occurred in any government, and, 
emanating from that of England, told, in a single sentence, 
the whole history of her terrors, her jealousy, her shallow 
artifice and humbled arrogance. 

This proposal was linked with many other insidious ob- 
jects, but they were too obvious to be successful, and only 
disclosed a shallow cunning. His Excellency had perceived 
in Ireland the phenomena of a governing people, without a 
ruling democracy, — an armed and unrestrained population, 
possessing, without abusing, the powers of sovereignty, and 
turning their authority not to the purposes of turbulence or 
sedition, but to those of Constitution, order and tranquillity. 
These armed associations, however irreproachable in their 
conduct, were unprecedented in their formation, and were 
fairly considered by His Grace with a lively jealousy, as tend- 
ing to establish a species of popular aristocracy, dangerous 
to the very nature of the British Constitution. 

Many friends of Mr. Grattan, or those who professed to 
be so, declared he would not accept of so large a sum as that 
proposed by Mr. Bagenal ; but this was a mistaken or an af- 
fected view of that subject. In fact the grant itself, not its 
amount, was the only point for dignified consideration. How- 
ever, after a considerable discussion, it was diminished, by 
Mr. Grattan 's friends, to the sum of fifty thousand pounds, 
which was unanimously voted to him; and never had a re- 
ward more merited or more honorable been conferred on any 
patriot by any nation. 

The times when civic crowns conferred honors no longer 
existed ; the property had become essential for importance in 
society. The Irish Parliament had before them a sad and 
recent example of the necessity of such a reward, in the fate 



In the Days of Grattan 403 

of Dr. Lucas, one of tlie best friends of Ireland, who had sac- 
rificed himself to support his principles; a man who had, so 
far as his talents admitted, propagated and applied the doc- 
trines of the great Molyneux; and, like him, was banished, 
and, like him, declared a traitor; who had sat a Representa- 
tive for the metropolis of Ireland; and whose statue still 
adorns the Royal Exchange of Dublin; a venerable Senator, 
sinking under the pressure of years and of infirmity, car- 
ried into their House to support its liberty,— sickening in 
their cause and expiring in their service; a rare example of 
patriotism and independence ; yet suffered to die in indigence, 
and leave an orphan offspring to become the prey of famine. 
With such a reproachable warning before the nation, it was 
for the people, not for the Crown, to take care that they never 
should be disgraced by similar ingratitude. In these degen- 
erate times, honors give no sustenance; and in the perverted 
practices of modern policy, it is not the province of the 
Monarch to reward the patriot. And this event leads the his- 
torian to others still more important. 

Upon every important debate on the claims of Ireland in 
the British and Imperial Parliaments, the native character 
and political propensities of the Irish people had been uni- 
formly made a subject of animated discusion; and the loyalty 
of that Nation to her Kings had been put directly in issue, 
by both her friends and her enemies ; by the latter as a pre- 
text for having abrogated her Constitution ; by the former as 
a defense against libel and exaggeration ; each party asserting 
that the past events of Irish history justify their reasoning, 
and afford evidence of their allegations. 

It is, therefore, at this important epoch highly expedient 
that this controversy of opinions as to the loyalty of the Irish 
people, though probably digressive, should be decided by un- 
equivocal historic matters of fact, undeniable by either party, 
and thereby, that the true principles of a long persecuted and 
calumniated people should be no longer mistaken nor mis- 
represented. 

A reference to the authentic Annals and Records of Irish 
History indisputably proves that the unrelenting cruelties and 
misruling of their British Governors in early ages, goading 
the wretched natives to insurrection, formed the first pretext 
for afterwards branding them with an imputation of indige- 
nous disloyalty, thereby exciting an inveterate prejudice 
against the Irish people; which, becoming hereditary, has 



404 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

descended, though with diminished virulence, from father 
to son throughout the English nation. 

These calumnies had their full and fatal operation, as an 
argument in urging the necessity of a Legislative Union; an 
argument at once refuted by reference even in the modern 
events of 1782, and to the unexampled moderation, forbear- 
ance and loyalty of the Irish nation, who sought only a full 
participation in the British Constitution, though the moral 
and physical power of that ardent people were then consoli- 
dated by their patriotism, and rendered irresistible by their 
numbers, their discipline and their energy. 

At that awful crisis of the British Empire, the Irish were 
an armed and triumphant people— England a defeated and 
trembling nation. Ireland was in the bloom of energy and of 
vigor ; England on the couch of discomfiture and malady. And 
if the spirit of indigenous disaffection, so falsely imputed to 
the Irish nation, had, in reality, existed, she had then full 
scope and ample powers to pursue and effect all its disposi- 
tion for an eternal separation. 

It is not, however, by modern or isolated events alone, that 
a fair judgment can be formed of the characteristic attributes 
of any nation, still less so of a worried and misgoverned peo- 
ple. It is only by recurring to remoter periods, thence trac- 
ing, step by step, the conduct of Ireland throughout all her 
provocations, her miseries and her persecutions, and then 
comparing the extent of their sufferings, her endurance, and 
her loyalty with those of her sister countries during the same 
periods, that the comparative character of both can be justly 
appreciated, and those calumnies which have weighed so heav- 
ily on her reputation can be effectually refuted. 

It is a matter of indisputable fact, that during the twenty 
reigns which succeeded the first submission of the Irish 
princes, the fidelity of Ireland to the British monarchs was 
but seldom interrupted, and that Irish soldiers were not un- 
frequently brought over to England to defend their English 
sovereigns against the insurrections of the English rebels. 

But when we peruse the authenticated facts of British 
annals during the same twenty reigns, we find an unextin- 
guishable spirit of disaffection to their princes, and that an 
insatiable thirst for rebellion and disloyalty signalized every 
reign, and almost every year of British history, during the 
same period; that above thirty civil wars raged within the 
English nation ; four of their monarchs were dethroned ; three 



In the Days of Grattan 405 

of their kings were murdered, and during four centuries the 
standard of rebellion scarcely ever ceased to wave over some 
portion of that distracted island; and so deeply had disloy- 
alty been grafted in the very nature of the British nobles and 
the British people, that insurrection and regicide, if not the 
certain, were the expected consequences of every coronation. 

Through these observations, the eye of England will at 
length be directed to these events. They will then be con- 
vinced that there lurked within the bosom of Great Britain 
herself the germs of a disquietude more unremitting, a licen- 
tiousness more inflammatory, a fanaticism more intolerant, 
and a political agitation more dangerous and unjustifiable, 
than any which even her most inveterate foes can justly ex- 
tract from an impartial history of the libelled country. 

The short digression must have the advantage of illustrat- 
ing tlje principles which have led to the transactions of 1798 
and 1800, those gloomy epochs of Irish calamity ; it may en- 
lighten that dark and profound ignorance of Irish history and 
transactions which still obscures the intellect of the Irish peo- 
ple, and even leads members of the United Parliament to avow 
their utter ignorance of the very country and people for whom 
they are at the same moment so severely legislating. Those 
men are surely the most injurious to the general tranquillity 
of a state, the collected power of united nations and the 
safety of the common weal, whose prejudices, ignorance and 
bigotry lead them by wanton irritation to engender uncon- 
genial feelings in eight millions of so powerful, ardent and 
generous a portion of the empire. 



CHAPTER XL 

COMPARISON OF GRATTAN AND FLOOD— CHARACTER OF JOHN PHIL- 
POT CURRAN. 

Mr. Flood had become most prominent amongst the Irish 
patriots. He was a man of profound abilities, high manners 
and great experience in the affairs of Ireland. He had deep 
information, and extensive capacity, and a solid judgment. 
His experience made him sceptical— Mr. Grattan's honesty- 
made him credulous. Mr. Grattan was a great patriot— Mr. 
Flood was a great statesman. The first was qualified to 
achieve the liberties of a country— the latter to entangle a 
complicated constitution. Grattan was the more brilliant 
man, Flood the able senator. Flood was the wiser politician, 
Grattan was the purer. The one used more logic, the other 
made more proselytes. Unrivaled, save by each other, they 
were equal in their fortitude ; but Grattan was the more im- 
petuous. Flood had qualities for a great prince, Grattan for 
a virtuous one ; and a combination of both would have made a 
glorious monarch. They were great enough to be in contest ; 
but they were not great enough to be in harmony ; both were 
too proud; but neither had sufficient magnanimity to merge 
his jealousies in the cause of his country. 

It was deeply lamented that at a moment, critical and vital 
to Ireland beyond all former precedent, an inveterate and 
almost vulgar hostility should have prevented the co-opera- 
tion of men whose counsels and talents would have secured its 
independence. But that jealous lust for undivided honor, the 
eternal enemy of patriots and of liberty, led them away even 
beyond the ordinary limits of Parliamentary decorum. The 
old courtiers fanned the flame, the new ones added fuel to it, 
and the independence of Ireland was eventually lost by the 
distracting result of their animosities, which in a few years 
was used as an instrument to annihilate that very legislature, 
the preservation of which had been the theme of their hos- 
tilities. 

This irreconcilable difference of opinion between two of 
the ablest men of Ireland generated the most ruinous conse- 
quences for that ill-fated country. Both had their adherents, 
as pertinacious as themselves. The simple repeal had con- 

407 



408 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

tented Mr. Grattan and Earl Charlemont ; the Renunciation 
Act was enforced by the perseverance of Mr. Flood and the 
people, and still considered inconclusive. Both parties ad- 
hered to their own conviction; nothing could warp the opin- 
ions of either; and to the day of their death their opinions 
remained unaltered and events proved that both were mis- 
taken. 

By those two statutes, by daily political discussions 
amongst the Volunteers, and by a multitude of literary publi- 
cations, circulated with activity, the people were at length 
informed of the plain, true facts of their own case and situa- 
tion. They were reminded, as at their first formation, that 
Great Britain had long usurped the power of binding Ireland 
by acts of Parliament, and that Ireland had thereby been re- 
duced to a state of constitutional slavery; that the British 
Government, intending to carry its usual usurpation to an ex- 
traordinary length, had passed an Act in ''the British Par- 
liament, ' ' during the reign of George I., ' ' binding Ireland by 
British statutes," cutting off at once every branch of Irish 
liberty; that this statute did not affect to originate any new 
power by England, but declared peremptorily that such a 
right had always existed in the English Parliament, and al- 
ways would be acted upon when it suited the convenience of 
the British Ministry. They were reminded that when the 
Irish nation became too wise and too powerful to be longer 
retained in subjection, England (in order to pacify the Irish 
nation) had herself voluntarily repealed that statute declara- 
tory of her pre-existing power; but did not, by that repeal, 
renounce the right which she had so long exercised, nor did 
she is any way declare that she would never re-enact it; that 
the same right remained, in abeyance ; nor had England ad- 
mitted in any way that she had been originally erroneous in 
enacting it. 

These being the plain and undisputed facts of the case, it 
was thence argued that the mere repeal of the declaratory 
statute, so far from definitively renouncing the existing right 
of legislation over Ireland confirmed it; and, by repealing, 
only enacted the expediency of discontinuing its exercise un- 
der existing circumstances. The statue which had declared 
that there existed such a pre-existing right in England to bind 
Ireland, was indeed repealed by England; but still though 
the declaration was repealed, the right was not renounced, 



In the Days of Grattan 409 

and remained only dormant till it might be advisable, under a 
change of circumstances, to re-declare it by a new statute. 

The simple repeal of any statute certainly leaves the orig- 
inal jurisdiction untouched, exactly in the same situation as 
before it, and with an undiminished right to re-enact it as 
might be convenient ; and the 6th of George I., its enactments 
and its repeal, stood exactly in the same situation as any en- 
actment and repeal of any ordinary statute of the same mon- 
arch. It was therefore argued that it had become indispen- 
sably necessary for the security of Ireland that the British 
Parliament should, by statutes of their own, not only repeal 
the Act declaratory of Irish independence, but also expressly 
and forever renounce the existence of any such legislative 
authority over Ireland, or future renewal of such usurpation, 
without which renunciation Ireland had no guarantee for the 
constitution. 

Had the statute of George I. been an assumption of a new 
authority to legislate for Ireland, its simple repeal would have 
at once admitted the usurpation of such modern assumption ; 
but as that statute was the recognition and declaration of 
pre-existing authority, coeval with the British Parliament it- 
self, a repeal could not be binding on any future Parliament, 
which might at any future time be disposed to re-enact it. 

But a statute of the British Parliament and the King of 
England, by his royal assent, directly renouncing the pre- 
existence of such assumed right by England, pledged all fu- 
ture Parliaments (as far as Parliaments can be pledged) to 
the same principle, and also definitely pledged all future 
Kings of England against any future re-assumption or exer- 
cise of such power over the Kingdom of Ireland ; and though 
the Kings of England and Ireland must always be the same 
individual, the realms were totally distinct, their crowns were 
distinct, though on the same head; and Ireland, possessing 
her own independent legislature, any such future attempt by 
a King of England would then be a direct breach of the law 
of nations, and a dereliction of his Irish office by the King of 
Ireland. 

These arguments became a universal subject of discussion ; 
and were rendered of still greater interest by debates, which 
every day arose on other points interwoven with the argu- 
ments. Numerous British statutes had been enacted, ex- 
pressly naming and legislating for Ireland, as if enacted by its 
own Parliaments. All these remained still in activity, and 



410 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

great inconvenience must necessarily have arisen from an im- 
mediate and indiscriminate suspension of their operation. 
None were enacted in Ireland to supply their places ; and great 
difficulties were occurring. Modern England could not be 
humiliated by generously declaring that her ancestors had 
exceeded their constitutional authority as to Ireland. On the 
contrary, it should have been her proudest boast to have done 
justice by avowing it. This was not humiliation— it was true 
glory; and when England, shortly afterwards, actually re- 
nounced forever, by the act of her own legislature, her domi- 
nation over Ireland, she could not have been much gratified 
by the temporizing complaisance of the Irish Parliament. 

It is also very remarkable that, though Mr. Walshe and 
the Recorder alone divided against the address of Mr. Grat- 
tan, in a very short time afterwards there was scarcely a 
member of Parliament, or a man in Ireland who did not con- 
cur decidedly in their opinions, and even the British ministry 
and the British legislature, by their own voluntary act, con- 
firmed their doctrine. Public discussions on one great sub- 
ject seldom fail to involve reflections upon others, arid these 
naturally brought the Irish people to discuss the imperfec- 
tions of their own Commons House of Parliament, and to per- 
ceive that without a comprehensive reform of that depart- 
ment, there was no security against the instability of events 
and the duplicity of England. 

The following letter, however, from Mr. Grattan to the 
author, appears to throw new and material light upon the 
subject, and to develop the individual views and politics of 
Mr. Grattan himself, more clearly than any speech or docu- 
ment heretofore published. 

This letter also proves, more than volumes, the insincer- 
ity of the Duke of Portland and the English Government, and 
their distinction between the words ** recognized" and "estab- 
lished, ' ' leaves their political reservation beyond the reach of 
scepticism. 

This letter shows probably the ruin that a want of co-ope- 
ration between two great men brought upon the country ; and, 
above all, it incidentally exposes the courtly, credulous and 
feeble politics of Earl Charlemont, so injurious to the public 
cause, and so depressing to the vigor and energies of its 
greatest advocate. 

To Mr. Ponsonby's chance remissness on a future crisis is 
attributable the public loss of the Irish legislature, as Lord 



In the Days of Grattan 411 

Charlemont 's political courtesy was, on this, fatal to its se- 
curity. Patriots without energy, as bees without stings, may 
buzz in sunshine, but can neither defend their hive nor assail 
their enemy. 

''House of Commons, London, March 2nd. 
*'My Dear Barrington. 

*'I am excessively sorry that your health has been im- 
paired, and I hope it will soon be restored. 

''I will get you the Whig-Club resolution. They proposed 
to obtain an internal reform of Parliament, in which they 
partly succeeded; they proposed to prevent an union, in which 
they failed. 

* ' The address that declared no political question remained 
between the two countries, had in view to stop the growth of 
demand, and preserve entire the annexation of the Crown. 
It was, to us, an object to prevent any future political discus- 
sion touching the relative state of the two countries ; because 
we might not be so strong at that moment. And it was an 
object to us and to the English Minister, to guard against any 
discussion that might shake the connection to which we were 
equally attached. Fox wished sincerely for the liberty of Ire- 
land without reserve. He was an enemy to an union, and 
wished for the freedom to be annexed to his name. 

*'The Act of Repeal was a part of a treaty with England. 
A declaratory Act of title is the affirmance of the existence of 
a former title ; the repeal is a disaffirmance of any such title ; 
the more so when accompanied by a transfer of the posses- 
sion, viz., the transfer of the final judicature and the legisla- 
tion for the colony-trade of the new-acquired islands, made in 
consequence of a protest by Ireland against the claim of 
England. 

*'The repeal was not any confession of usurpation— it was 
a disclaimer of any right. You may suppose what I have said, 
unsaid. A man of spirit may say that; but he will hesitate to 
unsay word by word. That was the case of England. She 
would not in so many words confess her usurpation, nor did 
she; on the contrary, when they pressed her, she exercised the 
power and said, 'The constitution of Ireland is established 
and ascertained in future by the authority of the British Par- 
liament.' It was proposed in the House of Commons to change 
the words and say, 'recognized forever.' They agreed to the 
word 'forever,' and refused the word 'recognized,' and kept 



412 Ikeland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

in the word ^established.' This I call making Ireland free 
with a vengeance. 

''I wish, in your History, you would put down the argu- 
ment on both sides. I can get you Flood's published by his 
authority. 

''I am excessively thankful for the many handsome things 
you have said of me. 

''Yours most truly, 

"Henry Grattan. 

"Chevalier Barrington, Boulogne, pres Paris." 

Their late constitutional acquirements, though apparently 
confirmed beyond the power of revocation, might be yet a pre- 
carious tenure, whilst Ireland had a House of Commons, so 
framed and elected as to be susceptible of relapse into its for- 
mer degradation; and though their constitution was not in 
any state of present danger, future insecurity must be the 
necessary consequence of a feeble or corrupt representation. 

Over the Lords and over the Crown, the control of the 
people was insufficint and uncertain. It was just, therefore, 
that they should have a counterpoise, by a House of Commons 
of their own free selection ; and events have since proved that 
the suspicions were prophetic. 

These, and such like reflections, led the Irish people grad- 
ually, according to their capacities, into a train of constitu- 
tional deductions ; and suggested topics as to the reform and 
purity of Parliament, which they had never before thought of. 

The great body of a people can never be capable of that 
cruel and discriminating course of reasoning, which individ- 
uals or limited delegations are capable of exercising, hence 
they too frequently, in great general assemblies, follow, 
whether right or wrong, the sentiments of those who reason 
more plausibly than themselves, or whose elocution grasps at 
their feelings and gives them a factitious superiority over 
ordinary understandings. 

It was impossible that the great body of the Irish Volun- 
teers, which had now asumed the guardianship of Ireland, 
could be capable of methodical, deep, systematic reasoning, 
or of unerring political deduction, from arguments of enthu- 
siastic and heated orators; but a great proportion reasoned 
by that instinctive power which nature confers on shrewd, un- 
cultivated capacities, and on none more than the humble or- 
ders of the Irish people ; they caught the strong features of 
their case and their constitution; they knew that they, had 



In the Days of Grattan 413 

contributed by their arms and by their energy, to the common 
cause of their country ; they felt that they had been victorious ; 
they listened attentively to their officers, who, more learned 
than the soldiers, endeavored to adapt their explanations to 
the strong, coarse minds which they sought to enlighten ; they 
instructed them as to existing circumstances, and to future 
possibilities, and thus endeavored to teach those whom they 
commanded, not only how to act, but why that principle of 
action was demanded by their country. 

At this time, the visionary and impracticable theories of 
modern days had no place among the objects of the armed so- 
cieties of Ireland; but the naturally shrewd and intelligent 
capacities of the Irish people were easily convinced, that, with- 
out some constitutional reform in the mode of electing the 
Commons House of Parliament, they could have no adequate 
security for permanent independence. They learned that par- 
oxysms of liberty which give rise to revolutions do not en- 
dure for ever, and that the spirit of Irish freedom, which had 
affected the liberation of their country, might expire; that 
the independence of the constitution, unless protected by a 
free parliament never could be secure ; that the enemy might 
attempt to regain her position and that the battle would then 
be fought again under multiplied disadvantages. 

Such a reform, therefore, as might insure the uninflu- 
enced election and individual independence of the Irish repre- 
sentatives, appeared to be indispensable, not as a theoretical 
innovation, nor of a revolutionary complexion, but as a practi- 
cal recurrence to the first and finest elements of the constitu- 
tion as it then existed, without any deviation from the prin- 
ciples on which it had been with so much wisdom originally 
constructed. This species of reformation, and none other, 
was that which the Irish nation so judiciously sought for ; nor 
were they without high authority and precedent to counte- 
nance that requisition. Mr. Pitt, that great but mischievous 
and mistaken statesman, at that time professed himself to be 
a reforming patriot, but it was profession only— his deep and 
solid intellect was soon perverted by the pride of his suc- 
cesses, and confidence in his omnipotence. He reigned at an 
unexampled era ; his fertile and aspiring but arrogant genius 
led him into a series of grand and magnificent delusions, gen- 
erating systems and measures which, while professing to 
save, sapped the outworks of the British constitution, and 
accelerated, if not caused the financial ruin in which lie left 



414 Ireland's Ceown of Thorns and Roses 

his country. He, however, lived long enough to rule as a min- 
ister by that system of corruption which, as a patriot, he had 
reprobated; and to extinguish the Irish Parliament, by the 
loyalty and attachment of which his government had been uni- 
formly supported. 

The Irish people coincided with Mr. Pitt, as to the neces- 
sity of a reform ; nor did the leading reformers of Ireland ma- 
terially differ with him in the details of that reformation ; the 
principle was admitted by both nations, but Mr. Flood was 
undisguised, and Mr. Pitt was in masquerade. 

The course of reasoning which led the armed associations 
of Ireland at that period to decide upon the imperative neces- 
sity of a reform of Parliament, was of that sober and convinc- 
ing nature, which without sophism or declamation, proves 
itself by the force of uncontrovertible premises, and of plain 
and simple deductions. 

1st. It could not be denied that the fundamental principle 
of the British constitution is a perfect relative equipoise and 
distinctiveness of its three component estates, the King, the 
Lords, and the representatives of the people. 

2nd. It could not be denied that any deviation from the 
equipoise and distinctiveness necessarily altered the political 
symmetry of the whole and destroyed that counteracting qual- 
ity of the three estates, and on the preservation of which pub- 
lic liberty entirely depended. 

3rd- It could not be denied that the Members of the House 
of Commons, forming the third estate, should, by the theory 
of the constitution, be persons freely selected by the people 
themselves, to guard above all things against any coalition of 
the other estates (the Crown and the Peers), which coalition 
must endanger the liberties of the people, by extending the 
prerogatives and powers of the Executive Government be- 
yond the limits the constitution restrains them to. 

4th. It could not be denied that any one individual arro- 
gating to himself and actually exercising a power to nomi- 
nate, and by his own sole will elect and return representatives 
to the House of Commons, sent them into that assembly, not 
to speak the sentiments of the people, but the sentiments of 
the individual who nominated them, and caused an immediate 
deviation from the fundamental principles of the British con- 
stitution ; but where members of the House of Peers so nomi- 
nated and returned persons to sit and vote as members in the 
House of Commons, it was, in fact, the House of Peers voting 



In the Days of G rattan 415 

by proxy in the House of Commons; thereby destroying at 
once the independence and distinctiveness of the third estate, 
and enabling the Crown and the Peers, by coalition, to con- 
trol the Commons, and establish a despotic throne and an 
arbitrary aristocracy. 

The power, therefore, constitutionally conferred on the 
King by his Royal prerogative of creating Peers, coupled 
with the power unconstitutionally practiced by the Peers, of 
creating Commoners, left the people no sufficiently counter- 
acting constitutional protection for their liberties. 

5th. It could not be denied that purchasing the representa- 
tion of the people in the Commons House of Parliament for 
money and selling the exercise of that representation for of- 
fice, was a constitutional crime of great magnitude ; and that 
when such a practice was publicly countenanced it, of course, 
destroyed the purity of Parliament, the principle of rep- 
resentation and safeguard of the constitution. 

But if these purchases were made by servants of the Ex- 
ecutive Government, in trust, for the uses and purposes of 
its ministers to enable them to carry measures through the 
legislature, which their naked strength, official character or 
the merits of the measure might be unable to affect, it was 
unequivocal that such practices put an end totally to all se- 
curity in the constitution and that the people must owe the 
enjoyment of their liberties only to the timidity, the forbear- 
ance or the possible wisdom of an official oligarchy. 

The Volunteers now examined existing matters of fact in 
Ireland as applicable to these premises, and comparing the 
one with the other, the conclusion became so plain and obvious 
to the hmnblest capacities, that the necessity of reform or 
modification in the mode of electing members for the Parlia- 
ment of Ireland required no further agreement. 

To ascertain the relative matters of fact, as applicable to 
these premises, the Volunteers caused to be printed and pub- 
lished lists of their House of Commons, designating the mode 
of election of every individual; the individual by whose per- 
sonal influence each representative was elected ; the number of 
persons who nominally returned the member, and, as far as 
could be ascertained, the money or valuable consideration 
paid for such unconstitutional representation. The result of 
the inquiry left no room to doubt the applicability of those 
inquiries to a great proportion of the Commons House of 
Parliament. The Earl of Ely nominated nine members to the 



416 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Boses 

House of Commons. The Earl of Shannon nominated seven ; 
and above twenty other members of the House of Lords nomi- 
nated and elected members for the House of Commons. Many 
individuals openly sold their patronage for money to the best 
bidder, others returned members at the nomination of the 
Viceroy or his secretary ; and it appeared that the number of 
representatives elected freely by the people, upon constitu- 
tional principles, did not compose one-fourth of the Irish 
Commons. 

An internal reform of Parliament was, on full considera- 
tion, deemed quite incompetent to meet the danger. Numer- 
ous statutes had been passed to punish, as a public crime, the 
bribery of an elector, but no law reached the individual who 
possessed and exercised an influence over electors, and then 
secretly sold that influence for money or for title. The elector 
who corruply voted was considered as a criminal ; but the man 
who corruptly bought and sold his vote was tolerated. On the 
fullest investigation, therefore, it appeared tliat in Ireland 
the third estate was, in a considerable degree, nominated by 
the second estate ; that both the second and third estates were 
influenced by the first estate, and that the whole symmetry and 
equipoise of the constitution were theoretic, but had no solid 
or permanent existence. 

The Volunteers at length determined to demand a reform 
of Parliament and to bring the measure before the existing 
Commons in a garb which they conceived would render it 
irresistible ; and from the determination arose the formation 
of a national representative convention of patriotic delegates 
selected from the armed reigments— the most extraordinary, 
animating, but unprecedented assembly ever yet beheld in the 
midst of a people, at the moment enjoying an ascertained 
constitution. 

Had this assembly been conducted with discriminating 
caution and imflinching firmness, it might have attained all 
its objects, and have affected a complete renovation of the 
British constitution, through the Irish people. England would 
not long have delayed acting on the successful precedent of 
Ireland. This extraordinary meeting, however, though its 
objects were not effectuated, brought forward a great mass 
of talent and of patriotism which had theretofore lain dor- 
mant. 

During the progress of all political reforms and revolu- 
tions, men have been frequently found pressing themselves 




JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN. 



In tjhe Days op urattan 417 

forward into public notice, solely by the strength of their tal- 
ents and the power of their energies ; springing at once from 
the humblest ranks of obscurity to the highest class of repu- 
tation. 

One of those luminaries was about this period seen arising 
in Ireland, whose celebrity in that country had no competitor. 

John Philpot Curran, a person of humble origin, of care- 
less habits, and comtemptible exterior, rose at once to give a 
new lustre and spirit to an already highly enlightened and 
spirited profession. He had passed through the University 
of Dublin unsignalized by any very peculiar honors, and was 
admitted to the Irish bar, scarcely known and totally unpat- 
ronized. With the higher orders he had no intercourse, and 
had contracted manners and adopted a kind of society tending 
rather to disqualify him for advancement, but whatever dis- 
advantages he suffered from humble birth were soon lost 
sight of amid the brilliancy of his talents, and a comparison 
of what he had been with what he rose to, rendered the at- 
tainments of his genius the more justly celebrated. Never did 
eloquence appear in so many luminous forms, or so many af- 
fecting modulations, as in that gifted personage. Every qual- 
ity which could form a popular orator was in him combined, 
and it seemed as if nature had stolen some splendid attribute 
from all former declaimers to deck out and embellish her 
adopted favorite. On ordinary occasions his language was 
copious, frequently eloquent, yet generally unequal, but, on. 
great ones the variety of his elocution, its luxuriance, its ef- 
fect, were quite unrivaled, solemn, ludicrous, dramatic, ar- 
gumentive, humorous, sublime, in irony invincible, in pathos 
overwhelming, in the alterations of bitter invective and of 
splendid eulogy, totally unparalleled ; wit relieved the monot- 
ony of narrative, and classic imagery elevated the rank of 
forensic declamation. The wise, the weak, the vulgar, the 
elevated, the ignorant, the learned heard and were affected; 
he had language for them all. He commanded, alternately, 
the tear or the laugh, and at all times acquired a despotic as- 
cendancy over the most varied auditory. 

These were the endowments of early Curran; and these 
were the qualities, which, united to an extraordinary profes- 
sional versatility, enabled him to shoot like a meteor beyond 
the sphere of all his contemporaries. 

In private and convivial society many of his public quali- 
ties accompanied him in their fullest vigor. His wit was in- 



4lS Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

finite and indefatigable. A dramatic eye anticipated the 
flights of an unbounded fancy ; but the flashes of his wit never 
wounded the feelings of his society; except, perhaps, those 
minds of contracted jealousy, which shrink up from the re- 
luctant consciousness of inferiority. He was, however, at 
times, very unequal. As in a great metropolis (to use one of 
his own illustrations), 'Hhe palace and the hovel, splendor 
and squalidness, magnificence and misery, are seen grouped 
and contrasted within the same precincts ' ' ; there were occa- 
sions when his wit sunk into ribaldry; his sublimity degene- 
rated to grossness, and his eloquence to vulgarity; yet his 
strength was evident even in his weakness. Hercules, spin- 
ning as a concubine, still was Hercules; and, probably, had 
Curran been devoid of these singular contrarieties, he might 
have glided into a brilliant sameness, and, like his great con- 
temporary. Burgh, though a more admired man, he would 
probably have been a less celebrated personage. 

The innumerable difficulties he had to encounter in early 
life were not easy to conquer, but once conquered, they added 
an impetus to his progress. His ordinary, mean, and trifling 
person; his culpable negligence of dress, and all those dis- 
advantageous attributes of early indigence were impercepti- 
ble or forgotten amidst his talent, which seldom failed to gain 
a decided victory over the prejudices even of those who were 
predetermined to condemn him. 

His political life was unvaried; from the moment he be- 
came a member of the Irish Parliament his temperature never 
changed. He pursued the same course, founded on the same 
principles. He had closely connected himself in party and in 
friendship with Mr. George Ponsonby; but he more than 
equalled that gentleman in the sincerity of his politics. From 
the commencement to the conclusion of his public life he was 
the invariable advocate of the Irish people; he never for a 
moment deserted their interest or abandoned their defense. 
He started from obscurity with the love of Ireland in his 
heart, and while that heart beat it was his ruling passion. 

As a mere lawyer, he was in no estimation ; but, as an able 
advocate he had no rival, and, in his skill and powers of in- 
terrogation, he vastly excelled all his rivals. He never failed 
to uphold the rights and independence of the Irish bar on 
every occasion where its privileges were trenched upon; and 
the bench trembled before him when it merited his aniraad- 



In thk Days of Grattan 419 

versions. None ever assailed liim publicly who was not over- 
thrown in the contest, and even the haughty arrogance of 
Fitzgibbon seldom hazarded an attack, being certain of this 
discomfiture. 

Mr. Curran was appointed Master of the Rolls (Mr. Pon- 
sonby then Lord Chancellor). He was disappointed in not 
obtaining a legal situation more adapted to his description of 
talents. He was also chagrined at not having obtained a seat 
in the Imperial Parliament and at length resigned his office 
upon a pension of £2,700 per annum. He died at Brompton 
on the 14th of October, 1817, after a short illness, and now 
''not a stone tells where he lies." His funeral was private 
and he was buried in the yard of Paddington Church. He 
was never fond of show and in his latter days he both sought 
and obtained obscurity. Of the close of his life we have heard 
much and credit little. 



Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE KING RECEIVES THE VOLUNTEERS— IRELAND IS HAPPY AND 
PROSPEROUS — CALL FOR A NATIONAL CONVENTION. 

That unparalleled army, tlie Irish Volunteers, had now 
ascended to the zenith of their character and prosperity. 
They had liberated their country from a thralldom of seven 
centuries; their numbers, their attitude, and respectability, 
had won their independence from a more powerful nation 
without bloodshed. The King received at his court and 
his levies, with apparent cordiality. Volunteer Officers and 
soldiers who, without his authority, formed an army uncon- 
nected with his Crown and independent of his Government; 
they acted without pay and submitted to discipline without 
coercion. 

The regular forces paid them military honors ; the Parlia- 
ment repeatedly thanked them for supporting a constitution 
upon which their establishment had undoubtedly encroached. 
They were adored by the people, dreaded by the Minister, 
honored by the King and celebrated through Europe. They 
had raised their country from slavery and they supported 
their Monarch against his enemies. They were loyal but de- 
termined to be free ; and if their Parliament had been honest, 
Ireland would have kept her rank and the nation preserved its 
tranquillity. The rise and porgress of that institution has 
been already traced; its decline and fall must now be re- 
corded. 

At this period Ireland appeared to have nothing to desire 
but capital and industry. She was free, she was independent, 
populous, powerful and patriotic ; her debt did not exceed her 
means of payment ; but of trading capital she had insufficient 
means, and her industry was cramped by the narrowness of 
her resources. All the materials and elements of industry 
were within her own realm and the freedom of trade she had 
acquired now promised a stimulus to her commerce which she 
had never before experienced. The people were united ; Cath- 
olic and Protestant were on the most cordial terms ; the voice 
of patriotism had exorcised the spirit of discord, the Catholic 

421 



422 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

for the moment forgot his chains and the Protestant recol- 
lected his ascendancy ; peace, order and security extended over 
the whole island; no army was required to defend the coasts, 
no police was wanted to preserve tranquillity, neither foreign 
nor domestic enemies could succeed against a prospering and 
united people. 

Had the ardent nature of Ireland been then tempered by 
calm and preserving judgment, had ordinary foresight con- 
trolled or guided her zeal, and had rational scepticism moder- 
ated her enthusiasm, one short session of her own Parliament 
might have entrenched her independence and established her 
constitution, beyond the power or the influence of all her 
enemies. 

Untoward destiny, however, had decreed that unfortunate 
and ever mal-governed island to fall into the error by which 
individuals so often meet their ruin. Having obtained suc- 
cesses beyond their expectation, a mist obscures their vision ; 
they know not where to stop, they rush blindly to the dangers 
that surround them and lose by indiscretion what they had 
achieved by fortitude. 

It was justly feared that the too sensitive, credulous and 
enthusiastic Irish, in a fallacious paroxysm of gratitude, 
might raise the draw-bridge of their fortress for the admission 
of their enemies, and, amidst the dissensions of the most 
able and honest of their warders, those who sought their over- 
throw might again penetrate into her citadel. 

The unfortunate differences of sentiments between Mr. 
Flood and Mr. Grattan, by enfeebling the authority of both, 
had diminished the security of the nation. Mr. Flood's diffi- 
dence of government was most congenial to the prospective in- 
terests of a people long enslaved. The energy of patriots had 
achieved, but it required the wisdom of statesmen to secure 
their newly-acquired constitution. Both, however, united in 
opinion as to the necessity as to the free and independent Par- 
liament to protect that constitution ; but no unanimity existed 
between them or throughout the country, as to the details of 
that measure. 

By these unfortunate collisions, courtiers obtained breath- 
ing time, and the Minister acquired hope. The hundred eyes 
of the British Argus were keen to discover the failings and 
frailties of the Irish patriots ; nor did they watch long in vain ; 
for a measure, which forms one of the most remarkable inci- 



In the Days of Grattan 423 

dents of Irish history, soon gave the English Government an 
opportunity of resuming its operations against that devoted 
country. 

The line of reasoning already described as to the state of 
the Parliament, and the necessity for its reform, made a deep 
and general impression, and was indefatigably circulated 
throughout the whole nation. Discontent quickly sprang up 
amongst the people, and their meetings increased. At length 
delegates from several Volunteer Eegiments again assembled 
at Dungannon to consider the expediency and means of an im- 
mediate reform of Parliament. Hence originated one of the 
most extraordinary scenes in the annals of any country. 

Mr. Flood was now considered the most able leader of the 
Irish patriots. Those who supported his opinion still perti- 
naciously contended that the measures already conceded were 
not, in themselves, guaranteed for the constitution which had 
been acquired, or in any respect sufficient for the preserva- 
tion of independence ; that confidence in the existing state of 
her Parliament would lull the nation into a fatal slumber, 
from which she might be awakened only by a new assault upon 
her freedom; and that no arrangement, without an explicit, 
formal and unequivocal recantation by England of her orig- 
inal usurpations ought to have been accepted. They urged 
that such an avowal would certainly have been obtained, if 
the Parliament had not been corrupted or deceived. They 
contended that if England should refuse such a declaration 
that in itself would be positive proof of her general insincer- 
ity ; and that if she haughtily persisted in retaining the theory 
of her usurpation after the practice of it had been relinquished 
it was evident she would watch the first favorable moment to 
impose still stronger chains than those which she had loos- 
ened. 

This strong language had already been freely used to rouse 
the friends of Ireland to a conviction of the versatility which 
her Representatives had given such practical proofs of. It 
was most assiduously disseminated, and not without founda- 
tion, that the Irish Parliament, in its recent proceedings, had 
clearly evinced more talent than prudence, and less wisdom 
than declamation; that whilst patriots were debating in the 
House, the Secretary was negotiating in the corridor; and 
therefore it was necessary to the public safety to strangle 
corruption in its cradle, and give the people a due confidence 
in the integrity of their Eepresentatives, 



424 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

It was considered by many men of influence and fortune 
that a reform of the Commons House of Parliament was at- 
tainable and should be then attained. The national arrange- 
ments daily appeared more imperfect, for they had not been 
conducted with the sound principles of cautious statesmen, 
nor had satisfactory guarantees been established for their fu- 
ture security. As Parliament was then returned, no well- 
founded confidence could be placed in its permanent protec- 
tion; and it was most judiciously stated by Mr. Flood, that 
the speech of a puzzled Minister, put into the mouth 'of an 
embarrassed Monarch, was at that moment the only security 
for the continuance of Ireland as an independent nation; and 
such independence might rest solely upon a single word of 
two syllables, on which every future Minister might found 
fallacious reasoning, and place his own equivocal construc- 
tion. This was, in truth, prophetic. 

It was also more than insinuated, by men of clear and dis- 
passionate judgment, that the struggles in Parliament were 
becoming rather for the supremacy of men and party than 
for the preservation of the Constitution; that they were 
blind, rancorous, and ill-timed individual contests, dangerous 
to the state and irritating to the people. They argued that 
the piercing eye of the British Minister would not fail to 
watch for the moment when, the Irish being enfeebled by their 
dissensions, he might destroy that independence which the 
architects of 1782 had attempted to establish, without guard- 
ing against the insecurity of the foundation. So far these 
arguments were true, but men stopped not here. It was sug- 
gested that a requisition to the Parliament to reform itself, 
urged by the people in their civil capacities only, might not 
have sufficient weight to command attention. If, however 
300 delegates were chosen by Volunteer regiments, from men 
of fortune, influence and character, it would prove to the Par- 
liament that a reform was required by those who had a right 
to require it, and could enforce it. They might send the heads 
ot a Bill to Parliament through the hands of their own mem- 
bers; such a mode of presentation could create no cavil; and 
above all, the very same men who would deliberate as volun- 
teer delegates and prepare such a bill would be, in a great 
measure, those who, in their civil capacities, composed the 
several grand juries of the nation, many of them being mem- 
bers of the Legislature. The measure was almost unani- 
mously detennmed upon. 



In the Days of Grattan 425 

Three hundred delegates were now chosen by different 
corps, and the 10th of November (1783) was proclaimed for 
the first sitting of the Grand National Convention of Ireland, 
within the precincts of the two Houses of Parliament, the 
members of which were at the same time exercising their 
legislative functions. Never was any country placed in a 
more extraordinary or critical condition. 

This state of affairs in Ireland was then seriously felt by 
the English Cabinet ; it became alarmed. Ireland now stood 
in a high situation. No longer (in the language of Mr. Gib- 
bon) a remote and obscure island, she formed a new feature 
on the face of Europe, and might assert her rank amongst the 
second order of European nations. In constitution and in 
laws, municipal and international, she was fundamentally the 
same as England; her legislature was, in theory, altogether 
independent. The individuality of their joint Monarch con- 
stituted the indefeasible basis of their federative connection ; 
but their respective Parliaments alone could make laws to 
bind their respective people, to regulate their own commerce, 
and to pay their own armies. Ireland had wisely and mag- 
nanimously recorded her loyalty, and proclaimed her deter- 
mination, that "whilst she shared the liberty, she would share 
the fate of the British nation"; but the compact was recip- 
rocal, and she had bound herself no further. 

England could not with apathy regard a military conven- 
tion, meeting and operating on political subjects, in the cen- 
tre of the Irish metropolis. 

The attention of England was by the adoption of these ex- 
traordinary proceedings naturally roused to a more detailed 
review of the statistical circumstances of Ireland. By the 
acquisition of a free com_merce and of unshackled manufac- 
tures, the revenue and resources of Ireland consequently be- 
came susceptible of extraordinary improvement, and might 
soon have equaled those of many continental nations and 
solely at her own disposal and approbation. 

In the capability of military power also she had few rivals ; 
at that period she contained (and continues to contain) more 
fighting men, or men who love fighting, and who might be col- 
lected in a week, than any other state in Europe. The power- 
ful and elevated position she was then about to occupy, and 
the unprecedented steps by which she had mounted to that 
eminence, could not be regarded without strong feelings of 
solicitude by the sister country. 



426 Ireland's Crown or Thorns aed Roses 

The example of Ireland had afforded a grave and instruct- 
ive lesson to an oppressed and vassal people, and a whole- 
some lecture to griping and monopolizing governments. Of 
all the extraordinary circumstances which the state of Ire- 
land then displayed, none was beheld at that critical period 
with such mingled wonder and alarm by England as the rapid 
progress of the Volunteer associations. And the bold step of 
a delegated convention, the increasing numbers, discipline 
and energy of that military institution had no precedent, nor 
in the changed state of Europe can the phenomenon ever ap- 
pear in any country. 

The Volunteers, now actually armed and disciplined, and 
whose delegates were now to be assembled, were said to ex- 
ceed 150,000 organized men. But whatever the force then 
was, the Volunteer recruits, if called on, would have com- 
prised the male inhabitants of nearly the whole island, includ- 
ing every rank, religion and occupation. 

Such a force, though self -levied, self-officered and utterly 
independent of any control or subjection, save to their own 
chosen chiefs, still remained in perfect harmony amongst 
themselves, in entire obedience to the municiapl laws of the 
country, holding the most friendly and intimate intercourse 
with the regular forces, and by their activity and local knowl- 
edge, preserving that country in a state of general and un- 
precedented tranquillity. 

This extraordinary military body, equally ready to shed 
their blood in opposing a foreign enemy, supporting their own 
liberties, or defending those of England, combining the moral 
and physical powers, and nearly the entire wealth of an im- 
inense population, nothing could have resisted ; and whatever 
ground of alarm the British Government might have then felt, 
had ministers been mad enough at that period to attempt its 
direct or compulsory suppression, instead of its atttachment 
to the sister country, the result would inevitably have been a 
prompt separation of the two islands. 

Ireland was in this state at the first meeting of the Na- 
tional Convention, and the Parliament asembled about the 
same time. The Volunteer elections were quickly ended with- 
out tumult or opposition, and their 300 delegates, each es- 
corted by a detachment of Volunteers from their respective 
counties, entered the metropolis and were universally received 
with a respect and cordiality impossible to be depicted; yet 



In the Days of Grattan 427 

all was harmony and peace. Many men of large fortune, 
many of great talent and many members of the Lords and 
Commons had been elected delegates hy the Volunteers, and 
took upon themselves the double functions of Parliament and 
of the Convention. 

The Eoyal Exchange of Dublin was first selected for the 
meeting of the Volunteer delegates. Whoever has seen the 
metropolis of Ireland must admire the external architecture 
of that building ; but it was found inadequate to the accommo- 
dation of a very large deliberative assembly. It was therefore 
determined that the Eotunda (being then the finest room in 
Ireland) was best adapted for the meeting of the National 
Convention. This was and continues to be the great assem- 
bly-room of Dublin. It consists of a circular saloon of very 
large dimensions, connected with numerous and very 
spacious chambers, and terminates Sackville street, the finest 
of the Irish metropolis. It is surmounted by a dome, exceed- 
ing in diameter the Irish House of Commons, and was per- 
fectly adapted to the accommodation of a popular assembly. 

This saloon and the connected chambers had been fitted 
up for the important purpose to which they were to be ap- 
propriated. But little did they conceive that what they then 
considered as the proudest day their nation ever had seen, 
only preceded a little time her national dissolution, and even 
prepared the grave in which her new-gained independence was 
to be inhumated. Every measure, however, had been pre- 
viously taken to prepare that splendid chamber for this un- 
paralleled assembly and to receive the delegates and their 
escorts with every possible mark of respect and dignity. 
Volunteer grenadiers were ordered to attend on the conven- 
tion as a guard of honor during their sittings, and to mount 
an officer's guard at the house of the President; whilst Volun- 
teer dragoons patrolled during the sittings, in the utmost 
tranquillity, throughout the entire city. The detachments of 
country corps who had escorted their delegates, having a 
great emulation as to their apearance and equipments on this 
grand occasion, had new dresses and accoutrements, and it 
was agreeable to see the noble hunters on which a great pro- 
portion of the cavalry was mounted. The horse had entered 
Dublin in small detachments, from exceedingly numerous 
corps, and when occasionally formed into line the great va- 
riety of their dresses, ensigns and equipments presented a 
splendid but very striking and singular appearance. 



428 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

The citizens of Dublin excelled in their hospitality, they 
appeared in crowds everywhere, forcing their invitations on 
the country Volunteers, every soldier had numerous billets 
pressed into his hand, every householder who could afford it 
vied with entertaining his guests with zeal and cordiality. 
Everything was secure and tranquil, but when it was consid- 
ered that 300 members had virtually proclaimed a concurrent 
Parliament, under the title of a National Convention and 
were about to lead a splendid procession through the body 
of the city, to hold its sittings within view of the House of 
Legislature, the affairs of Ireland seemed drawing fast to 
some decisive catastrophe. But it was also considered that 
the Convention was an assembly of men of rank, of fortune 
and of talent. The Convention, therefore, possessed an im- 
portance and a consistence that seemed to render some mo- 
mentous consequence absolutely inevitable; the crisis did 
arrive, but it was unfortunate ; Ireland tottered, retrograded 
and has fallen. 

The firing of twenty-one cannon announced the first move- 
ment of the delegates from the Eoyal Exchange to the Ro- 
tunda, a troop of the Rathdown cavalry, commanded by Col- 
onel Edwards, of Old Court, County of Wicklow, commenced 
the procession; the Liberty Brigade of Artillery, commanded 
by Napper Tandy, with a band, succeeded. A company of the 
Barristers' grenadiers, headed by Colonel Pedder, with a 
national standard for Ireland, borne by a captain of grena- 
diers and surrounded by a company of the finest men of the 
regiment, came after, their muskets slung and bright battle- 
axes borne on their shoulders. A battalion of infantry, with a 
band, followed, and then the delegates, two by two, with side- 
arms, carrying banners with mottoes and in their respective 
uniforms ; broad green ribands were worn across their shoul- 
ders. Another band followed playing a special air adopted 
by the Volunteers for marching and review. The champions 
of the different regiments in their cassocks, marched each 
with his respective corps, giving solemnity to the procession, 
and as if invoking the blessing of Heaven on their efforts, 
which had a wonderful effect on the surrounding multitude. 
Several standards and colors were borne by the different 
corps of horse and foot, and another brigade of artillery, 
commanded by Counsellor Calbeck, with labels on the can- 
nons' mouths, was escorted by the Barristers' corps in scarlet 



In the Days of Grattan 429 

and gold (the full dress uniform of the King's guards) ; the 
motto on their buttons being ''Vox populi suprema lex est."— 
''The voice of the people is the supreme law." 

The procession itself was interesting, but the surrounding 
scene was still more effecting. Their line of march from the 
Exchange to the Eotunda was through the most spacious 
streets and quays of the city, open on both sides to the river, 
and capable of containing a vastly larger assemblage of peo- 
ple than any part of the metropolis of England. An immense 
body of spectators, crowding every window and housetop, 
would be but an ordinary occurrence, and might be seen and 
described without novelty or interest, but, on this occasion, 
every countenance spoke zeal, every eye expressed solici- 
tude, and every action proclaimed triumph; green ribands 
and handkerchiefs were waved from every window by the en- 
thusiasm of its fair occupants; crowds seemed to move on the 
housetops, ribands were flung upon the delegates as they 
passed ; yet it was a loud and boisterous, but a firm enthusi- 
asm. It was not the effervescence of a heated crowd, it was not 
the fiery ebullition of a glowing people, it was not sedition, it 
was liberty that inspired them, the heart bounded though the 
tongue was motionless, those who did not see or who do not 
recollect that splendid day, must have the mortification of 
reflecting that (under all its circumstances) no man did be- 
fore, and no man ever will ''behold its like again." 

The entrance of the delegates into the Eotunda was more 
than interesting— it was awful. Each doffed his helmet or 
his hat, as if he felt the influence of that sacred place where 
he was about to sacrifice at the shrine of Freedom. Every 
man knew he was, in some respects, overstepping the boun- 
daries of the Constitution, but he considered that his trespass 
was for the purpose only of adding security to that Constitu- 
tion which he seemed to transgress. 

Such a state of things never existed in any other country, 
consistent with perfect tranquillity. Ireland, however, proved 
on that occasion her superior loyalty and gave the retort cour- 
teous to all her calumniators. It was a matter of fact that 
the independence of Ireland had been achieved, that it had 
been proclaimed in Ireland and in England, that it had been 
solemnly ratified and confirmed forever by his Majesty from 
his throne, as monarch of both countries. That compact was 
therefore firm, because it was federal and final, and the dele- 



430 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Ror-.ES 

gates sought what their own Parliament alone was competent 
to discuss, and over which England had no control. A partial 
form of the representation was a measure which the British 
minister himself had the duplicity of proposing in England, 
yet of undermining in the sister country, even in the face of 
his own renunciation of all innovation and acknowledgment of 
the former usurpation. 

These would at any other time have been subjects for de- 
liberate consideration, but it was too late to reflect, the die 
was thrown and as if everything conspired to increase the 
peculiarities of the scene, even the site of the Eotunda, where 
the Convention assembled, exactly terminated the street and 
front of the river, on the other side of which, in a direct line, 
was seen the magnificent dome of the Commons House of 
Parliament, where 300 members returned as representatives 
of the Irish people, according to the practice of the constitu- 
tion, were also deliberating. 

Those localities excited in every rational mind something 
like a dread of possible collision ; it was also a grave and curi- 
ous consideration that the avowed object of the Volunteer 
delegation was, in fact, to degrade the character of the Par- 
liamentary delegates and, under the name of reform, convict 
them of corruption. 

It was impossible not to perceive that both were placed in 
a sitiation which must necessarily terminate in the humilia- 
tion of one of them. 

It was also remarkable that the Volunteers, who had thus 
sent their delegates to reform the Commons House of Par- 
liament, had been themselves solemnly thanked the preceding 
session for their support to the Constitution by the very same 
House of Commons which they now determined to reorganize 
and reform. 

It is impossible not to contrast this national convention of 
Ireland with the democratic assemblies which, in later days 
overwhelmed so many thrones and countries. With what 
pride must an Irishman call to his recollection the concentra- 
tion of rank and fortune, and patriotism and royalty, which 
composed that convention of the Irish people! With what 
pride must the few survivors remember the 300 Irish nobles 
and gentlemen, assembling peaceably and loyally to demand a 
reform, an object of all others the nearest to their hearts, 
and the most necessary to their independence ! 



In the Days of Grattan 431 

Yet the collection of that assembly must also cast a dark 
shade over the History of Ireland, by transferring a reflection 
on its proud birth to its humble termination. 

A delineation of those scenes may appear to modern read- 
ers an exaggerated episode. That generation which beheld 
or acted in those days, is drawing fast to a close ; and whilst a 
few contemporaries exist it would be unpardonable to leave 
the scenes altogether to future historians, who convey but an 
imperfect recital of actions they had never seen, and frigid 
ideas of feelings they had never experienced. The results of 
that extraordinary measure may enable posterity to do some 
justice to calumniated Ireland, where loyalty appears to have 
wonderfully retained its influence over a powerful, proud and 
patriotic assembly, and over an armed and irresistible popu- 
lation, under circumstances the most dangerous and irritat- 
ing that had ever terminated with tranquillity in any nation. 

The Artillery had scarcely announced the entry of the 
delegates into the Eotunda when that silent respect which 
had pervaded the entire population during the procession 
yielded to more lively feelings ; no longer could the people re- 
strain their joy. At first, a low murmur seemed to proceed 
from different quarters, which soon increasing in its fervor, at 
length burst into a universal cheer of triumph, like distant 
thunder, gradually rolling on, till one great and continued peal 
burst upon the senses ; the loud and incessant cheering of the 
people soon reverberated from street to street, contributing 
the whole powers of acclamation to glorify an assembly which 
they vainly conceived must be omnipotent ; it was an acclama- 
tion, long, sincere and unanimous, and occasionally died away, 
only to be renewed with redoubled energy. The vivid interest 
excited by this extraordinary and affecting scene can never 
be conceived, save by those who were present, and partici- 
pated in its feelings, nor can time or age obliterate it from 
the memory. 

It is not unworthy of remark that a wonderful proportion 
of female voices was distinguishable amidst these plaudits. 
A general illumination took place throughout the city, bands 
of music were heard everywhere and never did a day and 
night of rejoicing so truly express the unsophisticated grati- 
fication of an entire population. The government was as- 
tounded, the Privy Council had sat, but were far from unani- 
mous, and had separated without decision. The old courtiers 



432 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



called the scene frantic, but it was not the frenzy of a mob, it 
was the triumph of a nation, incomprehensible to the vulgar 
meetings of another country. 

The scene within was still more novel and impressive. The 
varied uniforms of the delegates had a very singular appear- 
ance; sent from different regiments, no two of them were 
dressed or armed alike; cavalry, infantry, grenadiers, artil- 
lery, generals, colonels, sergeants, privates ; in fine, all possi- 
ble varieties of military dress and rank were collected in one 
general body, destined to act solely in a civil capacity. 

The cheers, the cannon, the music, the musketry, combined 
to prevent any procedure that day, save that of the members 
giving in their delegation and nominating some officers to act 
during the session. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION — BRILLIANT SCENES. 

Previous to the meeting of the delegates, the Bishop of 
Derry had determined to convince the Irish people, that he 
was no lukewarm professor of adherence to their interests; 
his character is confirmed by every act of his life when in 
Ireland. He took his seat amongst the Irish delegates, at the 
Rotunda, with the greatest splendor, and, to prove that he 
preferred the claims of the Irish Volunteers to both his 
English rank as Earl of Bristol and his Irish rank as a 
spiritual noble, he entered Dublin in royal state, drew up his 
equipage at the entrance to the House of Lords, as if he 
halted to teach the Peers their duty to their country, and 
then moved forward to take his seat at the Eotunda, as an 
Irish delegate in the National Convention. Such a circum- 
stance can be scarcely credited in England ; but had not Lord 
Charlemont's temporizing neutralized his spirit, it is prob- 
able that the Convention might have succeeded in its objects. 
It is not, therefore, wonderful, that a British Peer, an Eng- 
lishman, and, above all, a Bishop, taking so decided a part 
in the cause of Ireland, should gain a popularity that few 
before him ever had so fully, or, perhaps, more justly, expe- 
rienced. He certainly was sincere; his proceedings on this 
occasion were extraordinary, and not unworthy of a special 
notice. 

The Lords had taken their seats in the House of Peers 
when the Bishop of Derry began his procession to take his 
seat in the Convention. He had several carriages in his 
suite, and sat in an open landau, drawn by six beautiful 
horses, caparisoned with purple ribands. He was dressed in 
purple, his horses, equipages, and servants being in the most 
splendid trappings and liveries. He had brought to Dublin, 
as his escort, a troop of light cavalry, raised by his unfor- 
tunate and guilty nephew, George Robert Fitzgerald; they 
were splendidly dressed and accoutred, and were mounted 
on the finest chargers that the Bishop or their commander 
could procure. A part of these dragoons led the procession, 
another closed it, and some rode on each side of his Lord- 

433 



434 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Rosfis 

ship's carriage. Trumpets announced his approach, and 
detachments from several Volunteer corps of Dublin joined 
his Lordship's cavalcade. He never ceased making dignified 
obeisances to the multitude; his salutations were enthusias- 
tically returned on every side; ''Long live the Bishop" was 
heard from every window; yet all was peace and harmony, 
and never did there appear so extraordinary a procession 
within the realm of Ireland. 

This cavalcade marched slowly through the different 
streets, till it arrived at the portico of the House of Lords, 
which adjoined that of the Commons. A short halt was then 
made, the trumpets sounded, the sudden and unexpected 
clangor of which echoed throughout the long corridors. Both 
Houses had just finished prayers, and were proceeding to 
business, and, totally unconscious of the cause, several mem- 
bers rushed to the entrance. The Bishop saluted all with 
royal dignity, the Volunteers presented arms, and the bands 
played the Volunteer's march. Of a sudden another clangor 
of trumpets was heard; the astonished Lords and Commons, 
unable to divine what was to ensue, or the reason of the 
extraordinary appearance of the Bishop, retired to their 
respective chambers and with great solicitude awaited the 
result. 

The Bishop, however, had done what he intended ; he had 
astonished both Houses, and had proved to them his principles 
and his determination ; amidst the shouts and cheers of thou- 
sands, he proceeded to the Rotunda, where, in point of dignity 
and importance, he certainly appeared to surpass the whole 
of his brother delegates. He entered the chamber in the 
greatest form, presented his credentials, took his seat, con- 
versed a few moments with all the ceremony of a temporal 
prince, and then, with the excess of that dignified courtesy of 
which he was a perfect master, he retired as he had entered, 
and drove away in the same majestic style, and amidst 
reiterated applauses, to his house, where the Volunteers had 
previously mounted a guard of honor. He entertained a great 
number of persons of rank at a magnificent dinner, and the 
ensuing day began his course amongst the delegates, as an 
ordinary man of business. 

The personal appearance of the Bishop was extremely 
prepossessing ; rather under the middle size, he was peculiar- 
ly well made, his countenance fair, handsome, and intelligent, 



In the Days of Grattan 435 

but rather expressive of a rapidity of thought than of the 
deliberation of judgment; his hair, receding from his fore- 
head, gave a peculiar trait of respectability to his appear- 
ance. 

His manner appeared zealous and earnest, and rather 
more quick than is consistent with perfect dignity; but he 
seemed to be particularly well bred and courteous ; and alto- 
gether he could not be viewed without an impression that he 
was a person of talent and of eminence. 

He appeared always dressed with peculiar care and neat- 
ness; in general, entirely in purple, and he wore diamond 
knee and shoe buckles. But what I most observed in his 
dress was, that he wore white gloves, with gold fringe round 
the wrists, and large gold tassels hanging from them. 

The author was then too young, and too unimportant, to 
have the honor of any personal acquaintance with that dis- 
tinguished prelate; but the singnilarity of his habits, his 
patriotic conduct, popular character, and impressive appear- 
ance, excited a satisfaction in beholding him, and impressed 
him strongly on my recollection. 

The Bishop, in devoting himself to the service of the Irish 
people, could have no personal object but popularity. He 
could be no greater in title ; he was rich, and in health, vigor^ 
and spirits; his learning was rare, his talents very consider- 
able—in all respects he was an able man. From the moment 
he became an Irish Bishop he adopted Ireland, built an im- 
mense palace in a remote and singular situation, and did 
numerous acts which nobody could account for. He had many 
of those qualities in an eminent degree, which our more 
ancient histories have attributed to the proudest churchmen; 
but they were in him so blended with liberality, so tempered by 
enlightened principles, that they excited a very different mode 
of conduct from his episcopal predecessors. However, his 
ambition for popularity obviously knew no bounds, and his 
efforts to gain that popularity found no limits. His great 
failing was a portion of natural versatility, which frequently 
enfeebled the confidence of his adherents. It was supposed 
that the gentle, lambient flame of Charlemont would soon be 
quenched in the rolling, rapid torrent of the Bishop *s popu- 
larity, and that the epigrammatic eloquence of Mr. Grattan, 
cramped or overpowered by the influence of his splendor, 
would probably be withdrawn from the scene of action. The 



436 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Bishop soon adopted his course ; lie paid his whole attention 
to Mr. Flood. In this he was right. It is not too much to 
say that Mr. Flood was, at least, the best educated and deep- 
est statesman, and the most able partisan, in the Irish Senate. 

Whilst these extraordinary and brilliant scenes were pro- 
ceeding in Ireland, the embarrassment of the British Min- 
isters must necessarily be on the increase, if possible. They 
well knew that if the Convention succeeded in reforming the 
Commons House of Parliament, the British Government 
would lose the use of the only instrument through which they 
ever could hope to regain their ascendency; and with this 
view, and at this critical period, the plot was suggested and 
the conspiracy formed to replace Ireland within the trammels 
of the sister country whenever a feasible opportunity should 
offer. The sequence of Irish events leaves no doubt of the 
truth of his observation. 

These collisions were, to England, a golden opportunity; 
plans against the Volunteer Associations were deeply laid, 
and with considerable prospect of eventually succeeding, first 
by working upon the courtly moderation and courteous feeble- 
ness of the short-sighted Charlemont, and credulity of Grat- 
tan, to dismiss the Convention, and thereby divide and dis- 
jDirit the Volunteers. And, next, by corrupting Parliament 
and seducing the Irish gentlemen, under pretense of up- 
holding the British Constitution, to recapture the Irish inde- 
pendence. Whoever reads the political history of those 
realms from 1782 to 1800, cannot doubt that this object, from 
that period to the completion of the legislative Union, was 
never lost sight of. 

The British Minister had also reasons nearer home for 
determining to undermine the reforming spirit of the Irish 
Volunteers. He knew that if a reform of Parliament were 
effected in Ireland, though the same reasons did not exist, 
yet the same measure could not be long withheld from the 
English nation; and as the Parliament was at that era sup- 
posed to be ruled absolutely by the influence of the Crown, 
the control of the Minister would receive a vital blow which 
it never could recover. 

The commercial system of England, too, whilst without 
external rivalship, had no necessity for a special protection. 
But now she had a rival in the free trade of Ireland, a sub- 
ject which soon after came under full discussion. The 



In the Days of Grattan 437 

jealousy of England was proved by her commercial proposi- 
tions, and the Irish Parliament had yet sufl&cient honesty to 
resist that inroad. 

But as a body that had labored long and much, a lassitude 
and relaxation were obviously commencing in the Irish Sen- 
ate, how long that spirit, which had acquired their rights, 
might retain its vigor to protect them, depended on the purity 
of the representatives, and this was the true reason for con- 
sidering a reform imperative in Ireland. 

Whilst, therefore, the subject of Reform is under dis- 
cussion, it may be proper to see how far the then existing 
state of Ireland substantially required that measure, or war- 
ranted that conclusion. She was- to commence as a trading 
country, and a situation on the map of the world seemed to 
combine many defects and many advantages. She appears 
partially secluded from that general intercourse which other 
states of Europe enjoy from their localities. England, on 
the east, intervenes between her and the British Channel and 
German Ocean; Scotland intercepts the Northern Seas; and 
though the most western point of Europe, and of course well 
situated for the western commerce, the enterprise and great 
capital, or jealousy, of England, could have excluded her at 
pleasure, if unprotected by her own Parliament, from any 
proportional participation in the colonial trade. On a view 
of the whole, her position might have entitled her to have 
become a considerable emporium, but jealousy is natural to 
commercial nations, and Ireland would probably have pos- 
sessed the same lust for monopoly had she been circum- 
stanced as Great Britain. But the non-importation resolu- 
tions of Ireland had alarmed Great Britain, and proved to 
her to what a zeal of retaliation the Irish people might be 
urged by any future measures of injustice. 

The situation of Ireland places her comparatively out of 
the pale of busy Europe, by the absence of that political 
interest which the powers of Europe take in the commerce of 
other and inferior countries. This was a deprivation which 
nothing could ever remedy or counteract, but a local legis- 
lature, constantly resident, and constantly alive to the foreign 
and domestic interests of their country. 

These were some of the causes which rendered a pure and 
independent Parliament more necessary to Ireland than to 
her sister country. Ireland never had been a nation of exten- 



4:38 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

sive commerce, yet even the narrow channels of her trade 
were ever contracted by the jealousies and monopoly of Eng- 
land; and this in public opinion rendered a pure Parliament 
indispensable, as the only ample security against such inter- 
ference. 

To constitute an Irish Parliament, therefore, as much as 
possible free from every tinge of English commercial or politi- 
cal influence, was plausibly considered essential to the security 
of the former country. The necessity, in point of facts, can 
only be judged of by this view of the external state of Ireland 
at the crisis, when a military convention to discuss Reform 
surprised every nation of Europe, that would condescend or 
take the trouble to think about an island so secluded. 

The public characters of the Bishop of Derry and his 
more moderate rival were so extremely dissimilar, and their 
composition so totally repugnant, that any amalgamation of 
sentiment was utterly impossible. A cautious attachment to 
regularity and order, a sincere love for the people, a polished, 
courtly respect for the aristocracy, with a degree of popular 
ambition and a proportion of individual vanity, were the 
governing principles of Lord Charlemont during the whole of 
his political conduct. But, unfortunately, these were accom- 
panied by a strong taint of that religious intolerance which 
has since proved the interruption of Irish tranquillity. 

No man in Ireland could do the honors of a review better ; 
and though his personal courage was undoubted, no man in 
Ireland was likely to do the duties of a battle worse than 
Lord Charlemont. He guessed the extent of his own powers, 
and sedulously avoided any situation to which they might 
prove inadequate. If the people had not respected his vir- 
tues, they would not have submitted to his weakness; and 
if he had not loved the people, he would not have sacrificed 
his tranquillity to command them. He was an excellent 
nursBy tender of the constitution, but dreading every effective 
remedy prescribed for its disorders. 

Lord Charlemont saw clearly that the Presidency of the 
National Convention was of vital consequence to the country, 
and the master-key of his own importance. He had his little 
as well as his great feelings, and both were set into action by 
this dilemma. He knew full well that if the bold and enter- 
prising Prelate were at the head of that Convention, he would 
lose all weight with the Government, and all influence with 



In the Days of Grattan 439 

the people. The measure was altogether too strong for the 
character of Lord Charlemont ; he knew he would be incap- 
able of governing that body if it once got into any leading- 
strings but his own, and it was obvious that if his Lordship 
should get one step beyond his depth he never could regain 
his position. His friends, therefore, anticipated every means 
to ensure his nomination to the Presidency, and the Bishop 
of Derry, before he was aware that there would be any 
effectual opposition to himself, found Lord Charlemont 
actually placed in that situation where he might restrain, if 
not counteract, the ultra energies of the reforming party. 
This was the very step the Government desired ; Earl Charle- 
mont might be managed, but the Bishop of Derry would have 
been intractable. Lord Charlemont involuntarily became the 
tool of Government, whilst he fancied he was laboring in the 
service of the people. From this moment the neutralizing 
system by which its President wished to conduct that assembly 
became obvious. Everybody might foresee that not only the 
Convention, but perhaps the Volunteer Associations were 
likely to droop. 

Many sensible men had apprehended that the Bishop *s 
politics might be too strong; the very act of his attaching 
himself to Ireland proved at once their vigor and eccentricity ; 
and hence the Presidency of the Convention, in every point 
of view, became a measure of extreme importance. 

A few of the members of the House of Commons had 
declined their election to the Convention, but some of the 
ablest and most respectable members performed their duties 
alternately in both assemblies. The Lord Lieutenant and his 
Privy Council at the same time held their sittings at the 
Castle, exactly midway between the two Parliaments; they 
received alternate reports from each, and undecided whether 
the strong or the passive system were least, or rather most, 
fraught with danger, they at length wisely adopted their 
accustomed course, and determined to take advantage of the 
chances of division, and of the moderation, ductility, and pride 
of Lord Charlemont. 

It was artfully insinuated to Lord Charlemont, by the 
friends of the Government, that the peace of the country was 
considered to be in his hands, that he had accepted a situation 
of the most responsible nature, and that if he did not possess 
sufficient influence to curb the Convention, he ought at once 



440 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

to resign the trust, and thereby give the Parliament a ground 
of requiring the immediate dissolution of its constitutional 
rival. 

Lord Charlemont found himself in a situation of great 
embarrassment. If he held the Presidency he was respons- 
ible for its proceedings ; if he resigned it, he would still be 
responsible for having countenanced the organization of the 
assembly; the Bishop would succeed him in his chair, and 
he would still be considered the inceptive promoter of what- 
ever might be adopted by his successor. Lord Charlemont 's 
pride resisted his resignation. He was too high to be com- 
manded, he was too feeble to control, and he found himself 
in a state of great perplexity. After much deliberation, he 
adopted the suggestions of the courtiers and was led blind- 
folded to that deceptions course which might answer his 
tranquil objects for the moment, but was beneath his char- 
acter, and must eventually have extinguished all the popular 
influence of the Volunteers and have destroyed that of the 
country. In fine, he lost himself; he sacrificed his country, 
and determined on a line of proceeding entirely unworthy of 
his former conduct; if he could not govern, he resolved to 
temporize, divide, neutralize, and dissolve the assembly. 

This fatal system was eventually successful, and his Lord- 
ship effected the dissolution of that body whose confidence 
had raised him to so glorious an eminence, by which the 
British Government now foresaw the possibility of recaptur- 
ing Irish independence. Lord Charlemont had been seized 
with a nervous dread of that very institution he had orig- 
inally been so active in creating ; and entirely, though uncon- 
sciously, surrendered himself to the darling objects of a deep 
and treacherous administration. 

And here let it be remarked, that the independence of Ire- 
land, which certainly was first achieved by the exertions of 
the Whigs, was now left unguarded, and afterwards destroyed 
by the corrupt tergiversation of many members of that same 
party. The inconsistent conduct of some of the Whigs, and 
their Place Bill in 1794, were the proximate means through 
which the Union was ultimately effected. 

The proceedings of the Convention were carried on for 
some time with the utmost regularity. The rules and orders 
and customs of Parliament were adopted, and the meetings 
were held and continued without any material interruption. 



In the Days of Grattan 441 

But when such an assembly had been delegated for the pur- 
pose of requiring the Parliament to purify itself, and remodel 
its constitution, it could not be expected that every member 
could possess similar views or similar feelings, or perhaps 
observe the most uninterrupted order and discipline in dis- 
cussions. But the decorum and regularity of the Convention 
may be best exemplified by observing that there was not any 
meeting or discussion of the National Convention of Ireland, 
from its first to its last meeting, more confused or boisterous 
than what has very frequently been witnessed in the Com- 
mons House of the Imperial Parliament. 

A strong opposition soon arose to the imbecile system of 
Lord Charlemont. Superior public characters at length 
assumed their stations, and effectively overwhelmed that 
childish affectation of delicacy so utterly incompatible with 
the circumstances of the times and the spirit of the patriots. 
Yet, unfortunately, Lord Charlemont was elected and took 
the chair as President. 

The Bishop, disappointed of the chair, lost no time in 
rendering it a seat of thorns. He took to his council the man 
of all others best adapted to give weight and dignity to the 
measure of Parliamentary reform. Lord Charlemont sup- 
ported reform most sincerely. Mr. Grattan was also a sincere 
and honest friend to a purification of Parliament; but his 
favorite scheme, as he said, to begin with, was an internal 
reform. He partially accomplished that object of the Place 
Bill, whilst by one of its clauses he most certainly lost both 
the Parliament and the Constitution. 

The Bishop and Mr. Flood soon gained a full ascendency 
in the Convention, and many men of the very first rank, for- 
tune, and influence took part in its deliberations. Numerous 
plans were proposed, and reform, of all others the most dif- 
ficult of political measures, was sought to be too promptly 
decided in a heated and impatient assembly. 

By the imprudence of both parties the Convention and the 
Parliament were driven into a direct collision. After much 
deliberation, a plan of reform, framed by Mr. Flood and 
approved by the Convention, was directed by them to be pre- 
sented to Parliament forthwith, and the sittings of the Con- 
vention were made permanent till the Parliament had decided 
the question. Mr. Flood obeyed his instructions, and moved 
for leave to bring in the Bill to reform the Parliament. 



442 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Tlie Government felt that a collision of the two assemblies 
was unavoidable. The crisis, however, afforded no oppor- 
tunity for mature consideration, and it was not long before 
the danger of so hasty a proceeding was fatally experienced. 
Government had yielded to the Volunteers when it could not 
resist them; but it was not probable that the Parliament 
would quietly capitulate to the Convention ; whilst the triumph 
of the Parliament implied not only the destruction of the 
Convention but of the Volunteers. 

The measure of reform, patriotic and noble, blinded the 
nation to every consideration but its attainment, actual and 
prompt; yet so many persons of character, fortune, and in- 
fluence were in both assemblies that a discreet and prudent 
deliberation might possibly have devised means of averting so 
great a crisis. 

The Government resolved to risk a direct assault upon 
the Volunteers, by refusing leave to bring in Mr. Flood's 
Bill, because it had originated from their deliberations. 
Strong language was used, but with some precaution, even by 
Mr. Yelverton, who had been a zealous Volunteer, but was 
now the Attorney General. His eloquence was splendid, but 
the bold, restless, arrogant spirit of Fitzgibbon, ever prone 
to offend, to irritate, and to pervert, in a speech replete with 
the most unnecessary invective, unwarrantable fury and 
abuse, assailed the Convention, the Volunteers, and the Bill 
with every epithet and allusion that could bring the Gov- 
ernment and the Volunteers into a state of direct hostility. 
Had this effort been crowned with success, British connection 
would probably not have been of three months ' duration. 

The House felt the danger of his conduct, and he was not 
supported in his philippics. Mr. Curran called Mr. Fitz- 
gibbon a maniac and an incendiary ; Mr. D. Daley termed Mr. 
Flood a demagogue. The debate became quite unprecedented 
in point of violence and party recrimination, but the good 
sense of some members endeavored to moderate the partisans. 
The Bill, after a dreadful uproar, was rejected by 158 to 49 ; 
138 of the majority were placemen, and the very persons on 
ivhom the reform was intended to operate. It is very re- 
markable that it was 138 placemen that rejected the Reform 
Bill in 1783, and that it was the same number of placemen 
who carried the Union Bill in 1800, which, if the reform had 
succeeded, never could have been passed. 



In the Days of Grattan 443 

Upon this very decision ultimately depended the exist- 
ence of Irish independence. The Volunteers were insulted, 
their Bill was rejected without a hearing, their intentions 
were calumniated, even their name was reprobated ; their ser- 
vices were forgotten, and that very corruption which they 
sought to reform thus had its full revenge. 

Mr. Connolly— that weak, obstinate and most inconsistent 
of the Irish Whigs, whom family and fortune alone could 
have raised from obscurity— endeavored to give a finishing 
blow to that virtuous association which, in the same place, 
he had so often eulogized. He now explicitly denounced the 
Volunteers as enemies to that Constitution which they had 
obtained for their country, and which he afterwards surren- 
dered to the Ministers, against whose measures he had ar- 
rayed himself on every important occasion. 

This too great confidence of the Volunteers, in the success 
of their measures, had thus led them too rapidly into a pro- 
ceeding that required the most deliberate consideration. The 
refusal of Parliament to receive their Bill created a sensa- 
tion which, for a moment, left the peace of Ireland on the 
very brink of the precipice. Lord Charlemont mistook his 
fears for his prudence, the Volunteers mistook their resent- 
ment for their patriotism, both were exposed to extremity, 
and some decisive crisis appeared absolutely inevitable. That 
great and patriotic army which had the year before received 
the unanimous thanks of the Parliament were, by the motion 
of a Whig, nearly denounced as rebels and little less than a 
declaration of war against them was voted, even without a 
division in the Parliament. 

By this fatal dilemma, resistance or dissolution alone 
remained to the Convention. The most intelligent of that 
body determined that a day or two should be taken to reflect 
on the best course of proceeding. But Lord Charlemont 
dreaded the consequence of discussion and decided rather to 
betray his trust than hazard insurrection, and to adopt the 
safer step of dissolving the Convention. 

It is not easy to describe the uneasiness and deep solicitude 
of the Convention pending that debate. Reporters were 
perpetually passing and repassing between the two assem- 
blies; the impatience of the Volunteers was rising into a 
storm; Earl Charlemont, overwhelmed by his apprehension, 
saw no course but to induce them to adjourn; they, however, 



444 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

waited till long after midnight, in a state between anger and 
anxiety. Lord Charlemont did not oppose, but he duped 
them. He received a note from the House of Commons which 
he said left no hopes of a speedy decision, and he had the 
address and influence to induce the Convention to adjourn 
till Monday morning at the usual hour, then to decide upon 
ulterior measures, if the Bill should be rejected. But his 
Lordship had secretly determined that they should meet no 
more ; the death of the Convention was pronounced by their 
adjournment; and the honest, patriotic, but feeble Charle- 
mont, on that Monday morning began to extinguish that insti- 
tution to which he owed his celebrity and to paralyze that 
proud, popular spirit to which alone Ireland was indebted for 
its constitution and independence. 

Sunday was passed between his indecision and his timidity. 
In his weak and virtuous mind, pride and patriotism were 
ranged on the one side; but imbecility and a sense of inca- 
pacity to meet the crisis blinded him to the nature of that 
insidious conduct which, on this and perhaps the only occa- 
sion of his life, he meditated against his benefactors. 

He had a meeting of his few friends, most of whom had 
the same sensations as himself. The Bishop of Derry and 
Mr. Flood appeared like daring specters to his imagination; 
he dreaded to meet them at the Convention, and after much 
deliberation he decided on a course which detracted from his 
reputation and for which even the critical situation of the 
country could not allow him one point of justification. 

On Monday morning he repaired to the Rotunda, before 
the usual hour of sitting. None but his own immediate par- 
tisans were aware of his intention ; the meeting was expected 
to be most important, and the delegates had no suspicion of 
his Lordship 's early attendance. 

On his taking the chair, a delegate immediately arose to 
expatiate on the insults which the Convention had received 
during the debate on Saturday. His Lordship became 
alarmed; a protracted statement might give time for the 
arrival of delegates, when all his objects would surely be 
frustrated. He at once took a step which had scarcely a 
parallel for duplicity, and which, though of the shallowest 
nature, proved the most effectual. 

He instantly silenced the member, as being out of order, 
on the ground that one House of Parliament never could take 



In the Days of Grattan 445 

notice of what passed in another; and that the Convention 
had adopted the rules and orders of Parliament. 

Thus by collecting every ray of feebleness and absurdity 
into one focns, he prevented any continuation of the subject; 
and whilst he declared the Convention a House of Parlia- 
ment, resolved to terminate its existence. 

After some conversation, a farewell address was rapidly 
passed to his Majesty, and his Lordship boldly adjourned 
the Convention— s^?^e die. The Eotunda was quickly vacated, 
and when the residue of the delegates, the ardent friends of 
the Volunteer body, came to take their places, they found the 
doors closed, the Chairman withdrawn, and that body upon 
which the nation relied for its independence dissolved forever. 

The delegates, mortified and abashed, returned to their 
homes ; many friends of Earl Charlemont were soon ashamed 
of their conduct, and his Lordship's want of sincerity, for 
the first time, was indisputably proved and underwent well- 
merited animadversions. 

The Volunteer delegates, having returned to their con- 
stituents, could give but a puerile account either of their 
proceedings or of their Chairman. Every eye now turned on 
the Earl of Bristol, who became the idol of the people. Whilst 
Lord Charlem^ont gently descended into the jjlacid ranks of 
order and of courtesy, the Bishop rose like a phoenix from 
the ashes of the Convention. The Volunteer corps in many 
districts beat to arms; they paraded, they deliberated, but 
their bond of Union was enfeebled or dissevered. 

Amongst the weaknesses of Lord Charlemont he had an 
odious tinge of bigotry, and was decidedly opposed to the 
admission of Catholics to the full enjoyment of the Consti- 
tution. The Bishop, with more zeal and much greater abil- 
ities, was their warmest advocate. 

Exclusion on the one side and toleration on the other 
became the theme of both. The dispute ran high; partisans 
were not wanting, the people began to separate; and this 
unfortunate controversy gradually terminated in the fatal 
dissension which never ceased to divide the Irish nation, and 
at length effected all the objects of mischief that the most 
ruthless enemies of the Irish people could have expected, or 
have even wished. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ADDRESS OF THE VOLUNTEERS TO THE BISHOP OP DERRY— HEATED 
SCENES IN THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. 

After this fatal event, the Volunteers became less calm and 
more unguarded. The address of one regiment to the Bishop 
of Derry forms an interesting feature of Irish history, and 
it gave rise to a reply such as had not been ventured upon by 
any public character in either country. 

A northern corps, of considerable strength, had adopted 
the patriotic title of the ''Bill of Rights Battalion," and had 
entered into resolutions to ''support their Constitution, or 
be buried under its ruins. ' ' A large detachment of that corps 
marched from that country, determined to uphold the 
Bishop's principles and support his measures with their lives 
and fortunes. The address and the answer are strongly 
illustrative of the spirit of the times, and the embarrassment 
of the Cabinet. 

This declaration ran like wildfire through the nation. 
The last sentence was the boldest and most unequivocal, the 
most daring and decisive used in Ireland. A British Earl 
and Irish Bishop of great wealth, learning, abilities, and of 
unbounded popular influence, risking his fortune and perhaps 
his life in support of Ireland, was in every respect a phe- 
nomenon. 

His Lordship's desire to put himself at the head of the 
Irish nation was no longer doubtful, and well was he cal- 
culated to lead it to every extremity. All men were now 
convinced that, had his Lordship been President of the 
National Convention the moderate and courtly Charlemont 
must either have submitted to his standard or have sunk into 
nihility. 

"BILL OF RIGHTS BATTALION. 

** Resolved— That the following Address be presented 
from this Battalion, under arms, to the Earl of Bristol, Lord 
Bishop of Derry, for his truly patriotic exertions in support 
of our rights and liberties:— 

"To the Right Honorable Earl of Bristol, Lord Bishop of 
Derry. The Address of the Bill of Rights Battalion of 
Volunteers. 

447 



448 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roseb 

''My Lord— Having, with the eye of silent approbation, 
viewed yonr conduct, in every stage of its progress, at the 
Grand National Convention of Volunteer Delegates, we are 
impelled, by those generous sentiments that actuate the 
breasts of Irishmen, to offer your Lordship this address, as a 
mark of affection and of gratitude. 

"We see, with indignation and concern, the treatment 
which the wise, spirited, and salutary Resolutions of the 
Volunteer Conventions have received; but we trust the 
virtuous efforts of a united people, under the auspices of 
your Lordship, will cleanse the Augean stable— the noisome 
stalls of venality and corruption. 

''The gloomy clouds of superstition and bigotry, those 
engines of disunion, being fled the realm, the interests of 
Ireland can no longer suffer by a diversity of religious per- 
suasions. All are united in the pursuit of one great object— 
the extermination of corruption from our Constitution; nor 
can your Lordship and your virtuous coadjutors, in promot- 
ing civil and religious liberty, be destitute of the aid of 
all professions. 

"Permit us to assure you that as freemen, freeholders, 
and as Volunteers, our exertions to effectuate the grand work 
of reformation shall be as strenuous as the aim is important ; 
and that we are, with unfeigned gratitude and attachment, 
your Lordship's most faithful friends. 

"Signed, by order of the Battalion, 

"John Oer, Sec.^* 

A detachment from the Battalion, consisting of eighty 
rank and file, headed by their lieutenant-colonel, waited on 
his Lordship, on the 14th instant, at Downhill, and presented, 
under arms, their address, to which his Lordship was pleased 
to give the subsequent reply:— 

" Gentlemen— When you acknowledged the services of 
your fellow-citizens, in the County of Antrim, in the late 
struggle for liberty, you rewarded their toils in that coin 
most valuable to virtuous men ; and your approbation of their 
efforts, in some measure, consoled them for their want of 
success. 

"But, when you step forth from your own country, to 
hail the individual of another, unknown to you but by his 
honest endeavors, and unconnected, except by that kindred 
spirit which seems now, at length, to pervade the whole body 



In the Days of Grattan 449 

of Irislimen, and, like a Promethean fire, to animate a hitherto 
lifeless mass, the satisfaction excited in his mind, by the ap- 
plauses of men who have a right to approve what they dare 
to support, can be known only to those who are conscious of 
deserving what they are fortunate enough to receive. 

''When the conscience of a patriot bears testimony to the 
truth of the panegyric, and the sincerity of the panegyrists' 
praise ceases to be adulation, then they become the whole- 
some food of the manly mind, and nourisK that virtue they 
were, at first, intended only to prove. 

''But, gentlemen, those who dare assert their own rights 
should rise above the mean policy of violating the rights of 
others. 

"There is, in this island, a class of citizens equally re- 
spectable and infinitely more numerous than those who have 
hitherto oppressed them— 

"Men who have long crouched under the iron rod of their 
oppressors, not from any dastardly insensibility to their 
shackles— not from any unmanly indifference to the inalien- 
able rights of man ; but from a pious dread of wounding our 
common country through the sides of its tyrants— 

"Men, in whose hearts beats at this instant as high a 
pulse for liberty, and through whose veins pours a tide of as 
pure blood, and as noble, too, as any that animates the 
proudest citizen in Ireland— 

"Men, whose ancestors, at the hazard of their property, 
and with the loss of their lives, obtained the first great Bill 
of Rights, and upon which every other must be founded— the 
Magna Charta of Ireland— 

"Men, whose ancestors, in the midst of ignorance, could 
distinguish between the duties of a religionist and the right 
of a citizen, and who enacted those elementary and never 
obsolete statutes of praemunire which, for centuries, have been 
an irrefragable monument of their sagacity in distinguishing, 
and their fortitude in severing, their duty to the Church of 
Rome from their dependence on its Court — 

"Men, the undegenerate progeny of such virtuous ances- 
tors, who, with a firmness worthy of our imitation, and still 
more worthy of our gratitude, have endured those very out- 
rages from their country which their forefathers spumed at 
from its sovereign, and who, under a series of accumulated 
w^rongs, which would heighten the disgrace of human policy 



450 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

if they could be paralleled in its annals, have with a fortitude 
as unexampled as their oppression, allowed everything dear 
to the human heart to be wrecked, except their religion and 
their patriotism, except their acquiescence to the will of an 
unscrutable God, and their affection for a mistaken and de- 
luded country. 

'^But, gentlemen, the hour is come when sound policy, as 
well as irresistible justice will comiDcl those who demand their 
own rights to support their claim by a restitution of those of 
their fellow-citizen. 

''When Ireland must necessarily avail herself of her whole 
internal force to ward off foreign encroachments, the better 
to exercise anew the tyranny of a part of the community over 
the dearest and inalienable rights of others. 

''For one million of divided Protestants can never, in the 
scale of human government, be a counterpoise against three 
millions of united Catholics. But, gentlemen of the Bill of 
Rights Battalion, I appeal to yourselves, and summon you to 
consistency-TYRANNY is not GOVERNMENT and 
ALLEGIANCE IS DUE ONLY TO PROTECTION. 

' ' Bristol. 

"14th January, 1784.'' 

The Government now became seriously alarmed. Never 
was any Government in greater difficulty. Various were its 
advisers at this important moment; those in council, whose 
arrogance and arbitrary feelings generally outweighed their 
prudence, strongly enforced the most dangerous of all meas- 
ures, the immediate arrest of the Bishop. They contended 
that, by such energy, and by at once depriving the Volunteers 
of so enthusiastic a partisan, they might check their progress ; 
but they never reflected on the inability of Government to 
enforce the resolution. 

The daring and dangerous strength of the Bishop's lan- 
guage, the glaring light which by the last sentence was thrown 
upon the conditional terms of allegiance, as settled under the 
precedent of 1680, though totally inapplicable to the Irish 
nation, or to its connection with Great Britain, astounded all 
men. But the Government soon perceived the inevitable con- 
vulsion which must have attended so violent a step as Fitz- 
gibbon had recommended. It would have been the signal for 
100,000 Volunteers rushing to the rescue, and one week would 
have produced an insurrection, the smallest spark would now 
have inflamed the nation. 



In the Days of Grattan 451 

Tlie Government resolved to watch the progress of events 
over which control might be impossible. This course fully 
corresponded with their utter expectations. 

Many of the most patriotic Volunteers thought the Ad- 
dress of the Bishop true in principle, but too strong in terms, 
particularly as it was addressed to an armed corps, in the 
center of thousands who could not fail to kindle at the 
Promethean fire with which his Lordship had so classically 
animated his oration. 

The idea of coercing the Parliament very rapidly lost 
ground, and in a short time it became the general opinion 
that Mr. Flood's Reform Bill had been opposed by many 
upon the principle that it was rather a command than a 
solicitation ; and that it would be prudent to give the Parlia- 
ment a fair trial before they absolutely condemned them. It 
was thought that the objection being removed, by the dissolu- 
tion of the National Convention, a new bill should be pre- 
sented in the ordinary course of parliamentary proceedings, 
by members solely in their civil character, and the disposition 
of the House and the resolves of Government be thus fairly 
ascertained. 

The people were severed, but the Government remained 
compact ; the Parliament was corrupted, the Volunteers were 
paralyzed, and the high spirit of the nation exhibited a rapid 
declension. The jealousy of patriots is always destructive 
of liberty, 

A new event, however, soon proved the weak delusions of 
Earl Charlemont. At the dissolution of the Convention he 
recommended a Reform Bill to be presented to Parliament, 
as emanating solely from civil bodies, unconnected with mili- 
tary character. Every experience is silly, where its failure 
can be clearly anticipated, and almost every man in Ireland 
well knew that such a bill would be lost in such a Parliament. 
Mr. Flood, however, tried the experiment, and it failed; he 
attempted it without spirit, because he was without confidence. 
Mr. Grattan supported it with languor, because it was the 
measure of his rival. The military bill had been scouted, be- 
cause it was military, and the civil bill was rejected because 
it was popular. A corrupt senate never wants a vicious 
apology. 

The Volunteers now drooped, yet their resolutions were 
published; their meetings were not suspended, and their re- 



452 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

views continued; but these appeared only as boyish shows, 
to amuse the languid vanity of their deluded general. He 
passed their lines in military state ; he received their salutes 
with grace and condescension, and recommended them to be 
tranquil and obedient; and, after a peaceable campaign of 
four hours' duration, composed his mild and grammatical 
despatches, and returned to his Marino and to the enjoyment 
of the more congenial elegancies of literature and of private 
friendships. 

The temperate system now gained ground; some patriots 
lost their energy, others lost their influence, and the Gov- 
ernment experienced the wisdom of their negative measures. 

That noble institution, the Volunteers of Ireland, survived, 
however, these blows for some years. This only luminary of 
her sphere was, by the devices of the Government, gradually 
obscured, and at length extinguished. 

It was not supposed that the concessions to Ireland had 
been voluntary on the part of Great Britain. They were only 
a sacrifice to circumstances, with the mental reservation of 
acting upon the original principle, as often as events might 
facilitate such a proceeding. The egotistical character of the 
English trader, the avarice inseparable from mercantile edu- 
cation, and the national impatience, under even an ideal rival- 
ship, united in exciting every effort to neutralize the conces- 
sions; and it soon became palpable to both nations that the 
free trade of Ireland might prove a sore impediment to the 
gratifications of the English monopoly. England could not so 
suddenly renounce the force of ancient habit and of engrafted 
prejudices and become, at once, liberal, enlightened, and mag- 
nanimous. No person conversant with the ruling principles of 
mankind could suppose that her very nature could change in 
a day, and that she could be sincere towards Ireland as long 
as it was imagined that the two countries had repugnant 
interests. 

The insatiable cupidity of British capitalists and the 
necessities of the British Government had commenced their 
coalition even against the prosperity of England. The ex- 
travagance of the Government was supplied with facility, by 
the usuries of the monied interest, and a rein was given to 
that boundless waste of public money, which terminated in 
an overwhelming debt, and which nearly exhausted financial 
ingenuity, having not infrequently assailed the principles 
aijd safeguards of her own Constitution, 



In the Days of Grattan 453 

These concessions were likewise rendered peculiarly un- 
palatable by political circumstances. England, at that gloomy 
epoch, had not been able to retain one disinterested friend or 
sincere ally in Europe. She had subsidized German mendi- 
cants, and she had purchased human blood; she had hired 
military slaves from beggarly principalities, but these were 
not alliances for the honor of Great Britain. 

The character which England had justly acquired pre- 
viously to the year 1780 had raised her reputation above that 
of all the powers of Europe. The new attempt on Ireland pro- 
claimed that her sordid interests now absorbed every other 
consideration. 

The minister's only excuse for his schemes was the pe- 
cuniary wants of the Government. But Mr. Pitt feared that 
Ireland would murmur at paying her portion of his profuse 
extravagance. Taxation commenced on luxuries, proceeded 
to comforts, to necessaries, and, at length, extended its grasp 
to justice and morality. A treaty for a commercial tariff 
between the two nations was now proceeded on, and exposed 
that duplicity which had been scarcely suspected. The Irish, 
unaccustomed to receive any concession or favor, and little 
versed in the schemes of commercial polity, gave a giddy 
confidence to the dignified terms in which their terms had 
been acknowledged. Some able men, however, reasoned that 
the very composition of British Cabinets, the means of get- 
ting into power, and of keeping it; their private interests, 
and public object, were decidedly adverse to any liberal par- 
ticipation of commercial advantages with Ireland. Upon the 
English monopolists alone, ministers could depend for re- 
plenishing their exchequer, and for their retaining their 
power. Men also reasoned that if England and Ireland should 
clash on any point of commerce a British Parliament could 
not serve two conflicting interests, and an Irish Parliament 
was not likely to surrender rights she had obtained with so 
much difficulty and danger. 

It was, therefore, palpable (as Mr. Fox had mysteriously 
declared) that some further international measures were 
absolutely necessary, and as Ireland could now legislate for 
her own commerce with all the world, it seemed advisable that 
a commercial treaty should be contracted by the two coun- 
tries, which might provide against any collision and secure 
to both nations the advantages of the federal compact. 



454 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Nothing could be more plausible than the theory of this 
measure, and few things more difficult to carry into execu- 
tion. 

The detailed debates on the commercial propositions are 
beyond the range of this compact history. But it is essential 
to remark upon them with reference to the conduct of Great 
Britain, and it may be proper to allude to the state of Ire- 
land at the moment selected by the minister for making the 
first indirect attempt to recapture the independence of that 
devoted country. 

The Irish nation was rapidly advancing to eminence and 
prosperity, her commerce improving, her debt light, the taxes 
inconsiderable, emigration had ceased, and the population was 
augmenting, nearly two hundred nobles, and nearly all the 
commoners resided on their demesnes and expended their 
rents amidst those who paid them. The Parliament seemed 
to have been awakened to a more sedulous attention to the 
wishes of the people. Mr. Pitt took advantage of the moment 
when he saw that the nation was in good humor and grateful, 
and he determined whilst he flattered their vanity to invade 
their constitution. The state of the Irish court and aristoc- 
racy, at this period, seemed particularly favorable to the 
experiment. The constant residence of the landed proprietors 
was an incalculable benefit; and their influence, in mitigating 
the avarice of the clergy and the irritating tyranny of the 
tithing system, was most grateful to the people. 

The vice-regal establishment was at that period much 
more brilliant and hospitable than that of the monarch; the 
utmost magnificence signalized the entertainments of the 
Duke and Duchess of Eutland, and their luxury gave a 
powerful impulse to manufactures and industry. It was to 
be regretted, however, that this magnificence was accom- 
panied by circumstances which formed a new epoch in the 
habits of Irish society; a laxity of decorum in both sexes of 
the fashionable aristocracy had commenced, and though the 
voluptuous brilliancy of the court was dazzling to the coun- 
try, it was deficient in that proud, elevated dignity which had 
generally distinguished that society in former vice-royalties. 
Nothing could be more honorable than the conduct of the 
Duke of Eutland; but the sudden relaxation of manners at 
his court was by no means gratifying to those who had been 
accustomed to the undeviating strictness of decorum amongst 
the Irish ladies. 



In the Days of Grattan 455 

This paroxysm of joy throughout the country, confidence 
amongst the gentry, and absence of suspicion in the Parlia- 
ment was judged by the British Government the opportunity 
most favorable, under color of her commerce, to undermine 
her Constitution. This proposition for a treaty of commerce 
between England and Ireland, as two independent countries, 
necessarily required a deeper consideration than any other 
event of her history. No decisive international overt act had, 
as yet, taken place between the two countries. But Mr. Pitt, 
in his anxiety to encroach upon the independent spirit of the 
compact, unintentionally confirmed it upon a clear interna- 
tional principle. 

Mr. Orde, the Secretary of the Viceroy, on the 7th of 
February, 1785, proposed to the Irish Parliament eleven reso- 
lutions as a distinct commercial treaty between two inde- 
pendent states. As such they were received, but the treaty 
was at length utterly rejected by the Irish Parliament. 

Mr. Brownlow, one of the first country gentlemen of Ire- 
land, most zealously opposed it as a badge of slavery and an 
attempt to encroach on the independence of his country. It 
was, however, conditionally accepted, after much discussion; 
during which a mancBuvre was practised by the Secretary 
which would have disgraced the lowest trader. Mr. Orde 
expatiated with great plausibility upon the kind concessions 
of the English Government, and the extraordinary advantages 
likely to result to Ireland ; and urged the House to come to a 
hasty decision in their favor, ''lest the English monopolist 
should pour in applications to the English Parliament to stop 
their progress as too partial to Ireland. ' ' The bait took, and 
the resolutions were approved and sent back with some altera- 
tions. 

His artifice, however, was defeated, and Mr. Orde was 
left in a situation of excessive embarrassment and appeared 
equally ridiculous to both countries. Mr. Pitt, having gained 
his first point, conceived it possible to assail more openly the 
independence of Ireland by attaching her finances and com- 
merce to Great Britain, so that her own Parliament should 
become, if not impotent, at least contemptible. 

Instead, therefore, of rediscussing the eleven resolutions 
as approved by Ireland, he brought twenty propositions be- 
fore the English Parliament, incorporated in a Bill framed 
with such consummate artifice that it affected to confer favors, 
whilst it rendered the Irish Parliament only the register of 



456 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

all English statutes relating to commerce; and by a per- 
petual money bill appropriated a proportion of her hereditary 
revenue to the uses of the British Navy. 

Mr. Orde himself was utterly uncertain how to proceed, 
and after many adjournments, on the 12th of August, 1785, 
he moved for leave to bring in a bill pursuant to Mr. Pitt's 
twenty propositions. The country gentlemen of Ireland, 
though they did not understand the commercial details of the 
subject, perceived the design of the minister. A storm arose 
in Parliament, the landed interests of the country were 
alarmed, the country gentlemen grew boisterous, the law 
officers were arrogant, the patriots retorted and rendered the 
debate one of the most inflammatory that had for some years 
been witnessed. Long and furious was that remarkable con- 
test. Fitzgibbon, the Attorney General, exhibited an arro- 
gance which more than equalled any of his former exhibi- 
tions; he insulted many, and used the most overbearing 
language to all who opposed hun. The debate continued all 
night, and, at nine o'clock next morning, the violence was 
undiminished, and it was difficult to put the question ; at length 
a division at once announced the equivocal victory of the 
minister. The numbers for Government were 127, against the 
minister 108, leaving only a majority of 19. As the motion 
was only for leave to bring in the bill, it was obvious that 
on a second reading it would have been disgracefully rejected. 
Mr. Flood then moved a declaration of rights; another di- 
vision still less favorable to the minister succeeded; an 
adjournment, therefore, and a prorogation took place, and 
the subject was never renewed. 

Mr. Pitt never would have brought in this bill had he 
not been assured of success by the Irish Secretary; this 
defeat, therefore, was the more galling, and it confirmed, in 
his persevering and inflexible mind, a determination if he 
could not rule the Irish Parliament to annihilate the inde- 
pendence of Ireland. Mr. Pitt was never scrupulous as to 
means, and a much more important point shortly confirmed 
his determination by proving that, upon vital subjects, he had 
not yet sufficiently humbled the people or been able suf- 
ficiently to seduce their representatives. 

These propositions were in fact defeated by the honest 
obstinacy of the country gentlemen, and by the influence and 
talents of Mr. Grattan and Mr. Flood, who, upon this subject 
alone, were perfectly in unison. It is worthy of observation 



In the Days of Grattan 457 

that the zeal and honesty of Mr. Connolly, in supporting the 
independence of his country against the agency of Mr. Orde, 
were utterly reversed by his subsequently supporting the still 
more destructive measures of his corrupt and unfortunate 
relative. 

During these scenes some men who, though not of the 
highest order of talent, were in considerable reputation and 
of untainted integrity, exerted themselves in defence of their 
country ; amongst the most active was Mr. Forbes, the member 
for Drogheda. Without any very distinguished natural abil- 
ities, and but moderately acquainted with literature, by his 
zealous attachment to Mr. Grattan, his public principles, and 
attention to business, he received much respect and acquired 
some influence in the House of Commons. He had practised 
at the bar with a probability of success; but he mistook his 
course and became a statesman, as which he never could rise 
to any great distinction. As a lawyer, he undervalued himself 
and was modest; as a statesman, he overrated himself and 
was presumptuous. He benefitted his party by his indefatig- 
able zeal, and reflected honor upon it by his character; he 
was a good Irishman, and to the last undeviating in his public 
principles. He died in honorable exile, as Governor of the 
Bahama Isles. 

In a class lower as a politician, but higher as a man of 
letters and equal in integrity, stood Mr. Hardy, the biographer 
of Earl Charlemont. He had been returned to Parliament by 
the interest of Earl Granard, and faithfully followed the for- 
tunes of that nobleman and his relative, Earl Moira, through- 
out all the political vicissitudes of Ireland. 

His mind was too calm and his habits too refined for the 
rugged drudgery of the bar— he was not sufficiently pro- 
found for a statesman, and was too mild for a political 
wrangler— his ambition was languid, and he had no love of 
lucre— he therefore was not eminent either as a politician or 
a lawyer. Like many other modest and accomplished men, 
he was universally esteemed. He had sufficient talents, had 
he possessed energy, and his interest was always the last of 
his considerations ; his means were narrow, and his exertions 
inconsiderable. 

Mr. (afterwards Viscount) Carleton was, during a part 
of this important period, Solicitor General of Ireland, and 
no man was less adequate to the parliamentary duties of that 
office. He was, of course, but little noticed by the recorders 



458 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

of that epoch; and is almost a dead letter in the memoirs 
of Ireland. His conduct on the Union, however, was re- 
markable. 

Viscount Carleton was the son of a respectable merchant 
of Cork, and was created Solicitor General when the superior 
law offices were considered as stations of very considerable 
weight and of much official dignity. At the bar he was 
efficient; on the bench he was exemplary. With a plain and 
exclusively forensic talent, cultivated by an assiduity nothing 
could surpass, he attained very considerable professional 
eminence ; his whole capacity seemed to have been formed into 
points of law, regularly numbered, and always ready for use. 
His limited genius seldom wandered beyond the natural 
boundary; but whenever it chanced to stray to general sub- 
jects, it appeared always to return to its symmetrical tech- 
nicalities with great gratification. 

Habit and application had made him a singular proficient 
in that methodical hair-splitting of legal distinctions, and 
in reconciling the incongruity of conflicting precedents, which 
generally beget the reputation of an able lawyer. The Gov- 
ernment were glad to get him out of Parliament, and without 
intending it, did an essential service to the due administration 
of justice. 

As Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, his naturally gentle 
manners and affability, his legal knowledge, and the rectitude 
of his decisions procured him the unanimous approbation of 
his profession. He had no enemies. But, even in his prime, 
he was a most feeble and inefficient legislator and statesman; 
his capacity was not sufficiently comprehensive to embrace 
subjects of constitutional polity. He brought the attributes 
of his trade into Parliament, and appeared either blind or 
indifferent to those varied and luxuriant labyrinths which 
the principles of civil liberty eternally disclose, and which 
the enlightened legislator never fails to discover and never 
ceases to enjoy. 

When men shall read the childish, contemptible, and 
strained attempts at reasoning, which were pronounced by 
him upon the discussion of the Union, and reflect upon the 
duplicity of his professions and his predetermined emigration, 
it must be regretted that a judge so competent and inde- 
pendent and a man so respected should have yielded his coun- 
try against his conviction and lent his fair fame to the cor- 
rupting minister. 



CHAPTER XV. 

COLLISION BETWEEN THE PARLIAMENTS OF IRELAND AND ENGLAND 
—PITT WORKING FOR THE UNION. 

The British Government, for a long time, affected to 
relinquish the idea of opposing the commercial interests of 
Ireland. It was determined to let the Irish take their own 
course, and patiently to await till circumstances might enable 
them to act more decisively against their independence. 

Mr. Pitt was obliged to rest upon his oars ; his own bark 
was tempest tossed, whilst that of Ireland was running rap- 
idly before a prosperous wind. This was the state of Ireland 
after the proposition-tempest had subsided, when the Duke 
of Rutland's incessant conviviality deprived (October, 1787) 
the British Peerage of an honorable, generous, and high- 
minded nobleman, and Ireland of a Viceroy, whose govern- 
ment did nothing, or worse than nothing, for the Irish people. 
With the aristocracy the Duke was singularly popular, and 
he was not disliked by any class of the community; but his 
advisers were profligate, and his measures were corrupt. His 
Grace and the Duchess were reckoned the handsomest couple 
in Ireland. 

The Marquis of Buckingham was sent a second time to 
govern Ireland. As a moderate, hard-working Viceroy, with 
a Catholic wife, he was selected as not unlikely to be agree- 
able to the Irish. 

Little, however, was it supposed that the most important 
and embarrassing of all constitutional questions between the 
two countries was likely to occur during his administration. 
Unfortunately, however, such did arise, through the necessity 
of appointing a Regent during the Monarch's aberration of 
intellect. 

This great question and its influence on the federative 
compact of the two nations now entirely occupied the atten- 
tion of both Parliaments. The Prince, at that period, held a 
line of politics and employed a class of servants different 
from those he afterwards adopted. Mr. Pitt well knew that 
his own reign, and that of the Cabinet he commanded, were 
in danger— that they could endure no longer than some tat- 

459 



460 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ters of the royal prerogative and restraints on the Eegent 
should remain in his hands as minister, by which he could 
curb the Regency, which might otherwise be fatal to his ambi- 
tion and his cabinet. 

He therefore resisted with all his energy the heir appar- 
ent 's right to the prerogatives of his father, and struggled 
to restrain the Prince from many of those essential powers 
of the executive authority. 

The Prince acted with that dignity of which he was such 
a master, but, through a state of necessity, submitted reluc- 
tantly to the restraints prescribed by his own servants ; and, 
from a delicacy to the feeling of his mother, retained in his 
service a minister whom, on every other ground, he would 
have been more justified in dismissing with indignation. 

The Irish nation had nothing to do with this private cir- 
cumstance, and the Parliament would not obey the minister or 
submit to the mandates of the British Government. They 
decided that the Prince was their Regent, in virtue of the 
federative compact ; and they also determined that he should 
have all the regal prerogatives connected with the monarchy 
of Ireland. 

Upon this subject debates arose, more embarrassing than 
any that had ever taken place in the British Parliament. It 
was a casus omissus, both in the British Revolution of 1688 
and in the Irish Constitution of 1782. 

The question was whether the Parliament of Ireland were 
competent by address or otherwise to invest the Regent with 
more extensive privileges, as to Ireland, than the British 
Parliament had thought fit to entrust to him in England. 

This point was without precedent ; but it was argued that 
if an act of Parliament were necessary no Regent could be 
appointed, for an act implied the existence of the third estate 
and the proper proceeding was, therefore, by address. The 
probability of His Majesty's recovery had a powerful in- 
fluence on placemen and official connections. The Marquis of 
Buckingham took a decisive part against the Prince, and 
made bold and hazardous attempts upon the rights of the 
Irish Parliament. That body was indignant at his presump- 
tion, and he found it impossible to govern or control even 
the habitual supporters of every administration. Fitzgibbon, 
the Attorney General, was promised the seals "if he succeeded 
for Mr. Pitt, and he even announced that every opponent 



In the Days of Grattan 461 

should be made the victim of his suffrage. Lord Buckingham 
even threatened those who would not coincide with the British 
Parliament; the then powerful family of Ponsonby, decided 
supporters of the Government, on this occasion seceded from 
the Marquis, and which gave rise to the famous and spirited 
Round Robin. Many, however, may be induced to ask, why 
it was expedient to be honest in a circle. 

After long and ardent debates an address of the Irish 
Parliament was voted to the Prince, declaring him Regent of 
the Kingdom of Ireland in as full, ample, and unqualified a 
manner as was enjoyed by his Royal Father. 

The words, though simple, were as comprehensive as the 
English language could make them. The terms are : ' ' Under 
the style and title of Prince Regent of Ireland, in the name 
and on behalf of his Majesty, to exercise and administer, 
according to the laws and constitution of this kingdom, all 
regal powers, jurisdiction, and prerogatives to the Crown and 
Government thereof belonging." 

In the Commons, the Address was moved by Mr. Grattan 
and was carried without a division. It was moved in the 
Lords by the Earl of Charlemont, and was carried by a 
majority of only 19. Contents 45— Non-contents 26. 

In the Commons, the number upon Mr. Grattan 's motion, 
for thus transmitting the Address were— for the motion, 130; 
against it, 74. 

The Address having passed both the Lords and Commons, 
it was sent to the Viceroy to be transmitted to His Royal 
Highness. The Marquis of Buckingham peremptorily re- 
fused acquiescence, and an embassy of two Lords and four 
Commoners was immediately appointed to humbly present the 
Address, in the name of the nation, to the Prince. A severe 
resolution of censure was then moved against the Lord Lieu- 
tenant for a breach of official duty. It passed both Houses, 
and obliged him to quit the country. Though his extensive 
patronage was craftily applied and had procured him many 
adherents, he never afterwards could make any head in the 
Irish Parliament. The Address was the boldest step yet taken 
by the Irish nation, and it brought the independence of Ireland 
to a practical issue. 

The vital importance of the Regency Question consolidat- 
ing the independence of the Irish nation, and the fallacious 
influence which it afterwards afforded to the arguments for 



462 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

extinguisliing that independence offer considerations more 
grave and more comprehensive than any that have occurred 
since England, by the Renunciation Act, admitted her usurpa- 
tion. 

The facts and reasoning on that subject are beyond the 
range of this volume— they are therefore here necessarily 
epitomized. However, somewhat more than superficial detail 
is indispensable to dispel that mist of mingled prejudice and 
ignorance of the English people which has never ceased to 
obscure from their view every clear prospect of the true state 
of Ireland, when she evinced her unqualified adherence to 
the genuine spirit of the constitution. 

In 1789 two branches of the legislature, the Peers and the 
Commons of Great Britain and of Ireland, were by common 
law originally, and by statute law subsequently, as distinct 
as those of any other independent nation. The third estate, 
the king, was common Monarch of both; the two crowns 
placed on the same brow were, by the common constitution, 
entailed forever on the same dynasty; the executive power 
was united; the other branches utterly separate. 

The king of both countries having become incapable of 
executing his functions for either, his eldest son and heir 
apparent to the throne, in the full vigor of health and intel- 
lect, by the incapacity of his father, became the proper 
guardian of those two realms to the throne of which he was 
constitutionally to succeed. 

So circumstanced, the British minister who as such had 
no constitutional right to interfere with Ireland, thought 
proper, through the British Parliament, to shackle the 
Regency with restrictions that deprived the executive power 
in England of its constitutional prerogatives; such a meas- 
ure, if adopted by Ireland, would have left her king incom- 
petent, and her Regency imperfect, during the necessary 
suspension of the Monarch's capacity to govern. 

The Viceroy of Ireland, under the dictation of the British 
minister, resisted the legislature of Ireland in its own course 
of appointing the same Regent; and a collision ensued: the 
Irish supporting, and the English curtailing, the constitu- 
tional prerogative of the executive branch of the constitutio 
in the office of Regent. 

In this state of things the session was opened on the 
5th February by the Marquis of Buckingham, who, in his 



In the Days of Grattan 463 

speech from tlie tlirone iniormed the two houses of the severe 
indisposition with which the King was afflicted, and at the 
same time acquainted them that he had directed all the docu- 
ments respecting his Majesty's health which could assist their 
deliberations to be laid before them. 

On Wednesday, the 11th, Mr. Connolly moved that "an 
address should be presented to the Prince of Wales, request- 
ing him to take on himself the Grovernment of Ireland as 
Regent thereof during his Majesty's incapacity" (without 
any restriction). 

This motion gave rise to a long and violent debate, in 
which the Attorney General, Mr. Fitzgibbon (afterwards 
Chancellor of Ireland) eminently distinguished himself in 
opposition to the motion. It was supported by Mr. Grattan, 
Mr. Ponsonby, Mr. Curran, and other eminent speakers, and 
was ultimately carried without a division. 

On Monday, the 16th, the House of Lords being met, the 
Earl of Charlemont moved for an address to the Prince of 
Wales similar to that voted by the Commons, which, after 
some debate, was carried by a majority of nineteen. A pro- 
test was entered signed by seventeen Lords. 

On Thursday, the 19th, both houses waited upon the Lord 
Lieutenant with their address, and requested him to transmit 
the same ; with this request his Excellency refused to comply, 
returning for answer that under the impressions he felt of 
his official duty and of the oath he had taken he did not con- 
sider himself warranted to lay before the Prince an address 
purporting to invest his Eoyal Highness with powers to take 
upon him the govermnent of the realm, before he should be 
enabled by law so to do ; and therefore he declined transmit- 
ting their address to Great Britain. 

Upon the return of the Commons to their own House, and 
the answer of the Lord Lieutenant being reported to them, 
Mr. Grattan observed that in a case so extremely new it would 
be highly improper to proceed with hurry or precipitation; 
the House was called upon to act with dignity, firmness, and 
decision; and therefore that due time might be had for 
deliberation he would move the question of adjournment to 
the following day. The question was put and carried without 
opposition. 

On the next day he moved that his Excellency the Lord 
Lieutenant, having thought proper to decline to transmit to 
his Royal Highness, George, Prince of Wales, the address 



464 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

of both Houses of Parliament, a competent number of mem- 
bers be appointed to present the said address to his Royal 
Highness. 

Mr. Grattan's motion was passed without any division, 
whereupon he moved, "That Mr. Connolly do attend the 
Lords with the said resolution and acquaint them that this 
House requests them to appoint members of their own body 
to join with the members of the Commons in presenting the 
said address." This also passed without any division, and 
Mr. Connolly went up to the Lords accordingly. The mes- 
sage received in reply was that the Lords had concurred in 
the resolution of the Commons, and had appointed his Grace 
the Duke of Leinster, and the Earl of Charlemont, to join 
with such members as the Commons should appoint to present 
the address of both Houses to his Royal Highness, the Prince 
of Wales. 

Mr. Grattan then moved that the Right Hon. Thomas 
Connolly, Right Hon. J. O'Neil, Right Hon. W. Ponsonby,-. 
and J. Stewart, Esq., should be appointed commissioners on 
the part of the Commons for the purpose of presenting the 
address to his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, and they 
were appointed accordingly. 

These motions having passed, Mr. Grattan then moved 
.that the two Houses of Parliament had discharged an indis- 
pensable duty in providing for the third estate of the Irish 
Constitution (rendered incomplete through the King's in- 
capacity) by appointing the Prince of Wales Regent of Ire- 
land. This motion was carried after a long debate. Ayes 
150, Noes 71. 

Mr. Grattan then moved that it is the opinion of this 
House "That the answer of his Excellency the Lord Lieu- 
tenant to both Houses, in refusing to transmit the said ad- 
dress, is ill advised, and tends to convey an unwarrantable 
and unconstitutional censure on tJie conduct of both Houses.** 

Mr. Grattan's motion of censure was then put, on which 
the House divided, and there appeared for the motion 115, 
against it 83. 

On the 25th, resolutions of the committee of supply (whicli 
provides for the payment of the interest of the national debt, 
the annuities and establishments) being read, Mr. Grattaii 
moved "That the words for two months only, ending the 
26th of May, 1789, be added. On the question being put^ 
there appeared Ayes 104, Noes 85. 



In the Days of Grattan 465 

Mr. Grattan then moved that the army be provided for to 
the 25th of May only, which motion was carried. Ayes 102, 
Noes 77. 

This determination of the Irish legislature in asserting 
their constitutional independence, and their entire rejection of 
all subserviency to the views or dictates of the British Par- 
liament, was founded not only on the nature of their feder- 
ative compact, but on the very principles of that constitution 
which it was their mutual duty to preserve in its full integrity. 

By that constitution it was indispensable that every stat- 
ute should receive its consununation only by the express 
assent of the King, as the third state of that constitution. 

In this case no third estate existed in a capacity to assent 
to or consummate any statute, and no express provision had 
been made by the constitution for such an emergency. The 
Irish legislature, therefore, having no competent third estate 
to consummate a statute, adopted the next step admitted by 
the constitution, of proceeding by address, for which they had 
the English precedent of 1688. 

The British Minister, however, determined to proceed by 
statute, and this difference therefore arose between the two 
legislatures; England proceeded by means which could not 
be constitutionally consummated, Ireland proceeded by means 
which constitutionally could. The Viceroy surrendered him- 
self to the minister; the Irish legislature adhered to the 
Prince, and asserted their independence by an overt act, which 
England never since forgave; and, on the Union, used that 
act of Irish constitutionality as an argument for annihilating 
that legislature, which had dared to support the rights of 
their Prince against the ambition of his minister. 

International controversies are frequently referred to the 
arbitration of foreign states, disinterested on the subject, and 
had the question been submitted to such an arbitrator, 
'' Whether the British legislature, abetting the conspiracy of 
Mr. Pitt, to abridge the executive power of its inherent rights 
of their own Eegent, and had committed a crime, should be 
extinguished for its inroad on the constitution", the awful 
sentence must have been pronounced against Great Britain; 
and even the dignified language of the Prince himself evinced 
nothing adverse to the principle of so just a condemnation. 

Previous to the departure of the delegates to present the 
address to the Prince of Wales, a declaration by the Viceroy 



466 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

had been made public, wMcb threatened to visit with his dis- 
pleasure or reward by his favors every member of the legis- 
lature who could neither be deprived of office for his resist- 
ance or induced to accept one for his desertion. 

This declaration gave rise to the then celebrated Round 
Robin, which was subscribed by a great number of the highest 
aud most leading characters of both Houses of Parliament, 
pledging themselves as a body and as individuals, against 
every attempt by the Government either to seduce or to intimi- 
date them. This was a fatal blow to all further struggles for 
the Viceroy. The tide ran too strongly to be resisted; the 
rank and influence of those who signed that document could 
no longer be opposed, and proved to the Viceroy the impossi- 
bility of his continuing the Government of Ireland, upon such 
a principle, and of course he determined to retire from the 
Viceroyalty. 

The Delegates now proceeded to London to deliver to the 
Prince the joint address of both Houses of the Irish Parlia- 
ment. The first nobles and commoners of that kingdom invest- 
ing him with all those royal rights and prerogatives which 
had been refused to him by his British subjects, was too grand 
and gratifying an embassy not to receive the highest honors 
and attention his Royal Highness and his friends could be- 
stow. Nothing could exceed the dignified cordiality and splen- 
dour with which they were received by the Regent on that 
occasion. He felt all the importance of such a grant, and if 
gratitude has any permanent station in the hearts of mon- 
archs, the Irish people had reason to expect every favor that 
future power could confer on a nation whose firmness and 
fidelity had given him so imperishable a proof of their attach- 
ment. 

The words of the address bespeak the independence and 
loyalty of the Irish legislature, and fix the constitutional 
limitation to the power conferred by them; they prayed: 

"We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the 
lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons of Ireland in 
Parliament asembled, beg leave to approach your Royal High- 
ness with hearts full of the most loyal and affectionate at- 
tachment to the person and government of your Royal Father, 
to express the deepest and most graceful sense of the numer- 
ous blessings which we have enjoyed under his illustrious 
House, and at the same tame to condole with your Royal High« 



In the Days of Grattan 467 

ness upon the grievous malady with which it has pleased 
Heaven to afflict the best of sovereigns. 

"We beg leave humbly to request that your Royal High- 
ness will be pleased to take upon you the government of this 
realm, during the continuance of his Majesty's present indis- 
position, and no longer; and under the style and title of 
Prince Eegent of Ireland, in the name and on behalf of his 
Majesty, to exercise and administer, according to the laws and 
constitution of this kingdom, all regal powers, jurisdictions, 
and prerogatives to the crown and government thereof be- 
longing. " 

The reply of his Royal Highness to this embassy from 
Ireland is a document of most intrinsic value to the char- 
acter, and ought to have been so to the interests of that calum- 
niated and ruined island. 

That royal document expressly upheld and for ever 
records the loyal, consistent, and constitutional principles and 
conduct which guided the Irish legislature in that unpre- 
cedented proceeding, therein not only explicitly, but most ar- 
dently eulogized by the heir apparent. 

Yet it is unfortunate for the character and consistency of 
British Governments, to find seated high in the cabinet of 
George the Fourth, the very minister who, in the Irish Par- 
liament, in 1799, gave the retort courteous to every word so 
uttered by that monarch, as Regent in 1789, and stigmatized 
as treason that just eulogium uttered but ten years before 
upon their loyalty. 

Posterity, however, will read with disgust that, within so 
short a period, the very act which elicited those just and florid 
praises of devoted Ireland, was converted into a libel, and 
made a leading argument to effect the annihilation of the very 
legislature they had so ardently applauded. 

It is a remarkable coincidence in Irish annals, that Provi- 
dence was pleased to diminish her visitation on the King's 
capacity on the very day first appointed by the Prince to re- 
ceive his investiture as Regent of Ireland, through the hands 
of the Irish Deleg-ates; the object of this mission, therefore, 
could have no ulterior operation, and they returned to their 
country with every public honor and private estimation which 
their embassy and their characters so justly merited. The 
Prince therefore had no power previous to the Union of ex- 
emplifying his declaration of gratitude to Ireland. After the 



468 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



Umon, wlien Imperial Regent, his British ministers showed no 
disposition to give his Royal Highness that power or oppor- 
tunity ; his energies seemed to retire as his powers were ad- 
vancing, and when he became actual monarch of both coun- 
tries, events proved that the Regencies were forgotten, and 
that gratitude was not on record. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

IRELAND ACTS ON HER INDEPENDENCE— PROSPEROUS STATE OF THE 
NATION— AGITATION FOR CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION COM- 
MENCED. 

Upon the return of the Delegates to Ireland, the first epoch 
which we have been considering in this epitome of her history 
was consummated ; her Rise. She had arisen from servitude 
to freedom, from a subservient to an independent Nation ; the 
acquirement of that independence was a revolution, but it was 
a revolution without bloodshed. It was rather a regenera- 
tion, accomplished by the almost unanimous exertion of all 
the rank, the wealth, the character and the honesty of a vast 
population; the highest of the Aristocracy, and the humblest 
of the people joined hand in hand to regain their indepen- 
dence ; and it may be well termed a loyal revolution, because 
the English legislature, by their own voluntary act, admitted 
their own previous usurpation, and renounced all further pre- 
tensions to dominate over Ireland; and the King of Great 
Britain on his throne received and acknowledged his Irish 
subjects altogether legislatively unconnected with the rest of 
England. From that day Ireland rose in wealth, in trade, 
and in manufactures, agriculture, and every branch of indus- 
try that could enhance her value or render a people rich and 
prosperous. She had acquired her seat amongst the nations 
of the world, she had asserted her independence against the in- 
solence of Portugal, she had suggested an Irish navy to protect 
her shores, she had declared a perpetual league of mutual am- 
ity and aid with Great Britain. The court of her Viceroy ap- 
peared as splendid as her monarch's. Her nobles resided 
within her borders, and expended their great fortunes 
amongst the Irish people, the Commons all resided on their 
own demesnes, supported and fostered a laborious and tran- 
quil tenantry. The peace of the country was perfect, no stand- 
ing army, no militia, no police were wanting for its preserva- 
tion; the activity of the Volunteers had suppressed crime in 
every district, religious prejudices were gradually diminish- 
ing; means of amelioration were in contemplation or in 
progress. The distinctness of Ireland had been proclaimed to 

469 



470 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the world by overt acts of herself, and of her monarch and the 
King of England. The Irish sceptre in the hands of her 
King had touched the charter of her independence, on the 
faith of nations; before God and man its eternal freedom 
had been declared, and should have been inviolable. But by 
some inscrutable will of heaven it was decreed that she should 
soon be again erased from the list of nations, punished with- 
out a crime, and laid prostrate at the feet of a jealous ally. 

The spirit and independence of the conjoint Peers and 
Commons of Ireland, and their reception by the heir apparent, 
convinced the Viceroy of the impossibility of retaining his 
office ; his declaration of departure being again repeated, was 
greeted in Dublin as a measure of the highest gratification to 
the Whigs and Patriots, and of the deepest regret to the ad- 
herents of the minister. 

However, though the recovery of the King rendered the 
appointment of their Regent, at the time, unnecessary, it suf- 
ficiently asserted their constitutional and national indepen- 
dence, and as we have already mentioned, consummated that 
epoch which is termed the Rise of Ireland. 

One observation is here not out of place, and it is rather 
a remarkable occurrence that it was during the short interval 
which occurred between the first and second announcement of 
the entire incapacity of King George the Third, that he was 
induced by the same ministers who had resisted the regent 
to forego his own Royal acts, rescind his own constitutional 
assent, melt down his Irish Crown, and place his Irish sub- 
jects under the guardianship of a mutilated and absent repre- 
sentation. It is therefore not easy to reconcile to ordinary 
reason the probalility that a conscientious and moral mon- 
arch, during the interval of a disease so deep-seated and en- 
feebling to the human intellect, could calmly or judiciously 
reflect on a measure so comprehensive in its results, and so 
corrupt in its attainment, as the legislative Union. 

It was under all these circumstances, and the departure of 
the Viceroy, that the Earl of "Westmoreland came over as his 
successor. But the line of his politics or government had not 
preceded him. 

Mr. Pitt felt that he had made but slight progress towards 
his scheme of a union with Ireland; his projects had turned 
against himself; and the Irish Parliament, on the subject of 
the Regency, had taught him a lesson he had but little ex- 



In THE Days of Grattan " 471 

pectation of learning. However, the spirit of the Irish con- 
firmed that austere and pertinacious statesman in his reso- 
lution to rule Ireland in Great Britain, and to leave her no 
power to impede the course of his ambition. 

The Earl of Westmoreland was by no means ill adapted 
to the Irish people. He was sufficiently reserved to com- 
mand respect, and dignified enough to uphold his station. 
His splendid conviviality procured him many rational parti- 
sans, and his extreme hospitality engendered at least tem- 
porary friendships. He was honorable and good natured, 
and, among the higher orders and his intimate asociates, he 
was a popular Viceroy. 

His Secretary, Major Hobart (Lord Buckingham), was 
more a man of the world, and was admirably calculated for 
the higher classes of the Irish. 

A perfect gentleman, cheerful, convivial, and conciliating, 
though decided ; liberal, yet crafty ; kindhearted, but cautious ; 
and with a mixture of pride and affability in his manner, he 
particularly adapted himself to his official purposes by occa- 
sionally altering the proportion of each, as persons or cir- 
cumstances required their application. With an open, pre- 
possessing countenance, he gained wonderfully upon every 
gentleman with whom he associated. The period of Lord 
Westmoreland's government was certainly the summit of 
Irish prosperity. From the epoch of his departure she may 
date the commencement of her downfall. Lord Westmore- 
land's was charged with being a jobbing Government, but it 
was less so than that of his predecessors; and if he did not 
diminish, he certainly did not aggravate the burthens of the 
people. 

When Lord Westmoreland arrived, Ireland was in a state 
of great prosperity. He met a strong opposition in Parlia- 
ment, but it was an honest opposition, the guardian of pub- 
lic liberty, and not a faction. It was constitutional in prin- 
ciple, and formidable in talent ; it was rather a party to effect 
wholesome measures, than a systematic opposition to the 
Government. Only two subjects of vital importance were in- 
troduced during his administration, most of the others being 
plausible demands, calculated rather to gratify the people 
than to produce any radical change in the system of Govern- 
ment. A Place Bill, a Pension Bill, and a Responsibility Bill, 
an inquiry into the sales of Peerages, and into the Police of 



472 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Dublin, were amongst the most material measures pressed 
by the opposition during his viceroyalty. The Place Bill, 
however, supposed to be remedial, eventually became the most 
important that had ever been passed by an independent Irish 
Parliament. 

The perseverance of the able men who formed the oppo- 
sition at length gave a pretence to the Minister to purchase an 
armistice, by conceding some of the measures they had so 
long and pertinaciously resisted. 

It could not have been flattering, however, to the warm sup- 
porters of the Government to be required by the Secretary 
to become absolutely inconsistent, and to change their lan- 
guage without a change of circumstances, and recant opin- 
ions they had so frequently declared in conjunction with the 
minister. 

Some of the active supporters of the Grovernment, there- 
fore, determined not to interfere in these concessions, and 
the opposition, on the other hand, was so keen at the chase, 
and so gratified at the concession of their long-sought meas- 
ures, that they but superficially regarded the details or the 
mode of conceding, and never reflected, as legislators or 
statesmen, that one of those measures might prove a deadly 
weapon, by which the executive Government might destroy 
the Parliament under pretence of purifying it. A bill was 
brought in to vacate the seats of the members accepting of- 
fices under Government, omitting the term of bona fide offices; 
thereby leaving the minister a power of packing Parliament. 

The opposition, blinded by their honest zeal, considered 
this ruinous bill a species of Eeform, and were astonished 
at the concession of a measure at once so popular, and which 
they conceived to be so destructive of ministerial corruption. 

The sagacity of Mr. Pitt, however, clearly showed him 
that the measure would put the Irish Parliament eventually 
into his hands; and the sequel proved, that, without that Bill, 
worded as it was, the corruption by the ministers, the re- 
bellion, force and terror combined, could not have effected the 
Union. 

The Place, Pension, and Responsibility Bills were pro- 
posed by Mr. Grattan, acceded to by the Viceroy, passed into 
laws, and considered as a triumph of the opposition over the 
venality of the Government. 

Mr. Grattan was certainly the most incorruptible public 
character on the records of the Irish Parliament. He wor- 



In the Days of Grattan 473 

shipped popularity, yet there was a tinge of aristocracy in 
his devotion, which while it qualified its enthusiasm, still 
added to its purity. 

Such men may occasionally err in judgment, and may be 
misled by their ardor ; this was the case with Mr. Grattan, on 
this armistice with the Government. 

Mr. Grattan did not always see the remote operation of 
his project. 

He was little adapted to labor on the details of measures ; 
he had laid the broad foundation of the Constitution, but 
sometimes regarded lightly the outbuildings that were occa- 
sionally attached to it. On this occasion the Ministers were 
too subtle for him, and he heeded not the fatal clause which 
made no distinction between real and nominal offices. He 
considered not, that though offices of real emolument could 
not be so frequently vacated and transferred as to give the 
Minister any very important advantage, those of nominal 
value might be daily given and resigned, without observa- 
tion, and that, as the House was then constituted, the Minister 
might almost form the Commons at his pleasure. 

By comparing the Irish Parliament at the epochs of the 
Proposition and the Eegency Bills, and at that of 1800, the 
fatal operation of the Place Bill can be no longer question- 
able. In one word— it carried the Union. 

During the administration of Lord Westmoreland the first 
question (which so deeply affected the subsequent events of 
Ireland) was the partial emancipation of Irish Catholics. 
Though the question did not, when introduced, appear to in- 
volve the consideration of a legislative union, its results com- 
municated a powerful influence to that measure. 

The national annihilation of Ireland was, in a considerable 
degree, promoted by the impolitic mismanagement of the 
Catholic population. 

Though many of the penal and restrictive statutes by 
which the Catholics had been so long excluded from the most 
valuable rights, not only of British subjects, but of freemen, 
were repealed, and though the power of taking freeholds and 
possessing land property was restored to them, these con- 
cessions were but a stimulus to further claims, and for which 
they created a most rational expectation. 

The Catholics argued that if they were allowed to pur- 
chase freeholds, and to receive, by descent, lands in fee, it 



474 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

must consequently be an injustice, an absurdity, and an in- 
sult to debar them from the elective franchise, and the privi- 
leges which were by law attached to the possession of the same 
species of property by their Protestant fellow-subjects. 

They said that noblemen and commoners of great for- 
tune, of their persuasion, who had been deprived of their 
rights by their attachment to hereditary monarchy, notwith- 
standing those partial concessions, still remained loaded with 
many attributes of actual slavery, in the midst of a free peo- 
ple; that after a century of loyal and peaceable demeanor 
towards a Protestant dynasty, they were still to be stigma- 
tized as neither trustworthy nor loyal. Their language, firm 
and decided, was rational, and eventually successful. Gov- 
ernment were now alarmed, and affected to take a liberal 
view of the subject; but were by no means unanimous as to 
the extent of the concessions. They conceived the tranquil- 
lity might be attained by the mere religious toleration. This 
may be true, where but a small portion of the people were 
claimants ; far diif erent, however, where those excluded form 
the bulk, and the exclusionists a small minority of the peo- 
ple. However, the concessions were important, and greater 
than could have been credible before Lord Westmoreland's 
administration. The grant to Catholics of the elective fran- 
chise was the act more of Major Hobart and his government 
than himself. The forty shilling franchise was then granted 
to the poorest and most dependent peasantry of Europe, who 
might one day be influenced by one motive and the next day 
by its reverse. It is easier to grant than to recall, and strong 
doubts were fairly entertained as to the wisdom of that part 
of it. 

The first important debates, on granting the elective fran- 
chise to the Irish Catholics, were in 1792, on a petition, pre- 
sented in their favor. It was then looked upon as a most 
daring step; intolerance was then in full vigor, and Mr. La- 
touche moved to reject the petition without entering on its 
merits. 

The prejudice against the Catholics was then so powerful 
that their petition was rejected with indignation by a divi- 
sion of 208 to 23. 

The Government, by this majority, hoped to render sim- 
ilar applications hopeless, but a few months after it was 
found necessary that the measure should be recommended 



In the Days of Grattan 475 

from tlie throne and supported by Government, and was car- 
ried in the same House by a large majority. The strange 
proceeding of the Irish Parliament on this subject may be 
accounted for by their dread of reclamation by the Catholics 
(should they be admitted to power) of their forfeited estates 
held by Peers and Commoners, by grants of Elizabeth, Crom- 
well, and William ; but which, on more mature reflection, they 
found to be chimerical. 

The Legislature, however, by granting the elective fran- 
chise to the Irish Catholics conceded to them the very essence 
of the British Constitution. 

Mr. Pitt's ulterior views as to Ireland solve the enigma 
that the virulent enemies of the Catholics, who opposed the 
slightest concession, should directly after vote them the elec- 
tive franchise. Mr. Pitt's object was to reciprocally exas- 
perate the two parties against each other. The indignant re- 
jection of the petition of 1792 inflamed the Catholics with re- 
sentment, and elated the Protestants with triumph. The con- 
cession of 1793 reversed these passions, and both parties felt 
equally disgusted. The Minister took every advantage of 
the unpopularity of the Parliament. 

A very remarkable incident of inconsistency occurred in 
the House of Lords upon this occasion. Lord Clare, the most 
unqualified enemy the Catholics ever had, and the most viru- 
lent against them, on the debate in 1793 spoke and voted for 
giving them the elective franchise, which he had previously 
asserted would be a breach of the Coronation Oath, and de- 
structive to the Church and State. On the other hand. Lord 
Charlemont, always the most zealous friend of the Irish peo- 
ple, and the most distinguished of the gentle breed of patriots, 
on the same debate spoke in favor of the Catholics, yet voted 
against any concession whatsoever. 

Lord Clare wished to do mischief on Mr. Pitt's system, 
even at his own expense. Lord Charlemont wished to do 
good, but was too shallow to see the designs of the Chancel- 
lor, or even to mix policy with his candor. 

Though Lord Westmoreland was powerfully opposed in 
Parliament during the whole of his government, the country 
was in peace, and he was zealously supported. Had he not 
been recalled under the pretence of making way for a gen- 
eral pacification, the nation had no reason to suppose his 
place would be much better filled. His recall and the ap- 



476 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

pointment and deposition of Lord Fitzwilliam, Ms successor, 
within three months completed the train which Mr. Pitt had 
laid for the explosion. Having divided the country and ob- 
tained the means of packing the Parliament, through the 
Place Bill, he suffered some men to disseminate the French 
revolutionary mania; and having proceeded so far, recalled 
Lord Westmoreland and encouraged others to raise their loy- 
alty into the region of madness. 

His Lordship had not completed the usual term of resi- 
dence, nor had he failed in his duties, and his appearing not 
to feel hurt at his abrupt recall was mysterious, and seemed to 
forbode some important scheme or deception. 

The appointment of Lord Fitzwilliam, who had previously 
opposed the administration, was, perhaps, the most deep and 
treacherous design ever contemplated by any minister. But 
Mr. Pitt had never been in Ireland, and experienced diffi- 
culties he did not anticipate. He fancied he might excite and 
suppress commotion at his convenience ; but in deciding upon 
forcing a premature insurrection for a particular object he 
did not calculate on the torrent of blood that would be shed, 
and the inveterate hatred that might be perpetuated against 
the British Grovernment. His resolution was taken, and he 
prevailed upon one of the most pure and respected of the 
Whig leaders to become Viceroy of Ireland, under a suppo- 
sition that he was selected to tranquilize and to foster that 
country. The Minister wanted only a high-minded victim 
as an instrument to agitate the Irish. His Lordship had 
great estates in Ireland— was one of its most kind and in- 
dulgent landlords, and was extremely popular. His man- 
ners were, perhaps, too mild, but he had enlarged principles 
of political liberty, and of religious toleration.. Mr. Pitt had 
assured him he should have the gratification of fully emanci- 
pating the Irish Catholics. Lord Fitzwilliam accepted the 
office only on that consideration, and with this entire con- 
viction he repaired to Dublin to carry into immediate execu- 
tion what he conceived would forever tranquilize the coun- 
try. Mr. Pitt intended to inflame the country— throw upon 
the Viceroy the insinuation of disobedience— and openly 
charge him with a precipitancy of which he himself was the 
real author. 

Never was a scheme conducted with more address and 
secrecy. Lord Fitzwilliam was received with open arms by 
the people— he immediately commenced his arrangements— 



In the Days of Grattan 477 

and Mr. Pitt began as closely to counteract them. In every 
act of his government Lord Fitzwilliam was either deceived 
or circumvented. 

Mr. Pitt's end was answered; he thns raised the Catholics 
to the height of expectation, and by suddenly recalling their 
favorite Viceroy he inflamed them to the degree of generating 
the commotions he meditated, which would throw the Protes- 
tants into the arms of England for protection, whilst the 
horrors would be aggravated by the mingled conflicts of par- 
ties, royalists and republicans. 

By this measure, too, Mr. Pitt had the gratification of 
humbling Earl Fitzwilliam, disgracing the Whigs, overwhelm- 
ing the Opposition, turning the Irish into fanatics, and there- 
by preparing the gentry of that country for the project that 
was immediately to succeed it. The conduct of the Duke of 
Portland must have been either culpable or imbecile— he must 
either have betrayed Lord Fitzwilliam to Mr. Pitt, or Mr. 
Pitt must have made him a blind instrument of treachery 
to his friend. The first is most probable, as he remained in 
office after his friend had been disgraced, and, in direct con- 
tradiction to his own declaration, aided in the fatal project 
which was effected by that treachery. 

The limits of this record do not admit of stating in de- 
tail all the important facts which constituted the treachery of 
the Premier and the fraud on Earl Fitzwilliam. His Lord- 
ship's letters to Lord Carlisle cannot be abridged; every line 
is material ; in those letters only can the deception practised 
on that nobleman be found with that weight and accuracy 
which so remarkable an incident in both English and Irish 
history requires. 

In those letters will be found, as in a glare of light, on the 
one side, that high-minded, pure, virtuous dignity of mind 
and action, and on the other that intrepid, able, crafty, in- 
flexible and unprincipled conduct which marked indelibly the 
characters of those remarkable personages. 

Mr. Pitt having sent Lord Fitzwilliam to Ireland with 
unlimited powers to satisfy the nation, permitted him to pro- 
ceed until he had unavoidably committed himself both to the 
Catholics and country, when he suddenly recalled him, leav- 
ing it in a state of excitation and dismay. 

The day Lord Fitzwilliam arrived peace was proclaimed 
throughout all Ireland. The day he quitted it she prepared 
for insurrection. 



478 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

The Beresfords and the Ponsonboys were arrayed against 
each other— and in one week more the Beresfords would have 
been prostrate. Mr. Pitt, however, terminated the question 
by dethroning Lord Fitzwilliam; the Whigs were defeated— 
and Ireland was surrendered at discretion to Lord Clare and 
his connection. Within three months after Lord Fitzwil- 
liam 's dismissal Lord Clare had got the nation into full train- 
ing for military execution. 

The arrival of Lord Camden to succeed Earl Fitzwilliam 
was attended by almost insurrectionary outrage. The Beres- 
fords were the ostensible cause of the people's favorite being 
overthrown; on that family, therefore, they conceived they 
should signalize their vengeance, and their determination was 
nearly carried into execution. 

The Chancellor, in his carriage, was assailed ; he received 
a blow of a stone on his forehead which, thrown with some- 
what more force, would have rid the people of their enemy. 
His house was attacked; the populace were determined to 
destroy him, and were proceeding to execute their intentions. 
At that moment their rage was, most fortunately, diverted by 
the address of his sister, Mrs. Jeffries, who, unknown and at 
a great risk, had mingled in the crowd; she misled them as 
to the place of his concealment. Disappointed of their object, 
they then attacked the Custom House, where Mr. Beresford, 
first commissioner of the revenue, resided. Dreadful results 
were with reason apprehended. 

Such was the inauspicious beginning of Lord Camden's 
government. From the day of his arrival the spirit of in- 
surrection increased, and in a short period during his Lord- 
ship's government more blood was shed, as much of outrage 
and cruelty was perpetrated on both sides, and as many mili- 
tary executions took place as in ten times the same period 
during the sanguinary reign of Elizabeth or the usurpations 
of Cromwell or King William. 

The conspiracy of united Irishmen— never profoundly se- 
cret — soon became public; its members avowed themselves, 
but the extent of its objects was unknown, and its civil ar- 
rangements and military organization far exceeded those of 
any association in history. Constituents knew not their rep- 
resentatives, and the soldiers knew not the names of those 
by whom they were to be commanded. Even the members of 
their executive Directory were utterly unknown to some hun- 



In the Days of Grattan 479 

dred thousand men, wlio bad sworn obedience to tbeir or- 
ders. Mr. Pitt was surprised and found tbe conspiracy be- 
coming rather too extensive and dangerous for his purposes ; 
for a moment he felt he might possibly get beyond his depth, 
and he conceived the necessity of forcing a premature ex- 
plosion, by which he might excite sufficient horrors through- 
out the country to serve his purpose, and be able to suppress 
the conspiracy in the bud, which might be beyond his power 
should it arrive at its maturity. 

Individually Lord Camden was an excellent man, and in 
ordinary times would have been an acquisition to the coun- 
try, but he was made a cruel instrument in the hands of Mr. 
Pitt, and seemed to have no will of his own. 

Earl Camden was of a high mind and of unblemished rep- 
utation ; his principles were good, but his talent was not emi- 
nent; he intended right, but was led wrong; he wished to 
govern with moderation, but was driven by his council into 
most violating proceedings; to the arrogant dictum of Lord 
Clare he had not a power of resistance, and he yielded to 
cruelties that his mind must have revolted at. 

His Lordship became extremely popular among the armed 
associations which were raised in Ireland under the title of 
Yeomen. He was considered the guardian of that institu- 
tion. He did what justice he was permitted to do, and a 
single false act of his own during his residence in Ireland 
was never complained of. His secretary. Earl Chichester 
(Mr. Pelham), held up the reputation of the Government to 
its proper standard. Without great talents, he had good 
sense, good manners, a frank address, with humane honora- 
ble, and just intentions; but, at a critical moment he was 
obliged to return to England for his health, and Lord Cam- 
den filled up the vacancy by his nephew. This relative be- 
came one of the most celebrated persons of the day, and is 
the principal hero in the sequel of Irish history, and in Eng- 
land proved himself a most destructive minister to the 
finances and character of the British Empire. 

However, with all his good qualities as Viceroy, Lord Cam- 
den's government was by its consequences the most ruinous 
and most unfortunate that Ireland ever experienced. 

Lord Clare and his connections, intoxicated by their vic- 
tory over the late Viceroy, set no bounds to their triumph; 
they treated the people as their vassals, the country as their 
demesne, and its patronage as their private property. 



480 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

On a review of the state of Ireland at that period it must 
be obvious to every deliberate observer that the design of 
Mr. Pitt to affect some mysterious measure in Ireland was 
now, through the unaccountable conduct of the Irish Govern- 
ment, beginning to develop itself. The seeds of insurrec- 
tion which had manifested themselves in Scotland and in 
England were by the vigor and promptitude of the British 
Government, rapidly crushed, and by the reports of Parlia- 
ment Lord Melville had obtained and published prints of the 
different pikes manufactured in Scotland long before that 
weapon had been manufactured by the Irish peasantry. But 
in Ireland, though it appeared from public documents that the 
Government had full and accurate information of the Irish 
United Societies, and that their leaders and chiefs were well 
known to the British Ministry at the same period and by the 
same means that England and Scotland were kept tranquil, 
so might have been Ireland. 

Mr. Pitt, however, found he had temporized to the ex- 
tremity of prudence ; the disaffected had not yet appeared as 
a collected army, but a succession of partial outrages con- 
vinced him that prompt and decisive measures became ab- 
solutely indispensable. The Earl of Carhampton, Comman- 
der-in-Chief in Ireland, first expressed his dissatisfaction at 
Mr. Pitt's inexplicable proceedings. His Lordship had but 
little military experience, but he was a man of the world, of 
courage and decision, ardent and obstinate; he determined, 
right or wrong, to annihilate the conspiracy. Without the 
consent of the Irish Government, he commanded the troops 
that on all symptoms of insurrectionary movements they 
should act without waiting for the presence of any civil power. 
Martial law had not then been proclaimed. He went, there- 
fore, a length which could not possibly be supported; his 
orders were countermanded by the Lord Lieutenant, but 
he refused to obey the Viceroy, under color that he had no 
rank in the army. 

Lord Carhampton found that the troops in the garrison 
of Dublin were daily corrupted by the United Irishmen; he 
therefore withdrew them and formed two distinct camps on 
the north and south, some miles from the capital, and there- 
by, as he conceived, prevented all intercourse of the army 
with the disaffected of the metropolis. Both measures were 
disapproved of by the Lord Lieutenant, whom Lord Car- 
hampton again refused to obey. 



In the Days of Grattan 



481 



The King's sign manual was again procured, ordering 
him to break up his camps and bring back the garrison ; this 
he obeyed, and marched the troops into Dublin barracks. He 
then resigned his command and publicly declared that some 
deep and insiduous scheme of the Minister was in agitation, 
for, instead of suppressing, the Irish Government was obvi- 
ously disposed to excite an insurrection. 

Mr. Pitt counted on the expertness of the Irish Govern- 
ment to effect a premature explosion. Free Quarters were 
now ordered to irritate the Irish population; SLOW TOR- 
TURES were inflicted under the pretence of forcing con- 
fessions ; the people were goaded and driven to madness. 

General Abercromby, who succeeded as Commander-in- 
Chief, was not permitted to abate these enormities, and there- 
fore resigned with disgust. Ireland was by these means re- 
duced to a state of anarchy and exposed to crime and cruel- 
ties to which no nation had ever been subject. The people 
could no longer bear their miseries. Mr. Pitt's object was 
now affected, and an insurrection was excited. 




Sculpture on Window Cathedral Church, Glendalough : Beranger, i779. 

Prom Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

COENWALLIS LEADING THE UNION FORCES — FRENCH INVASION OP 
IRELAND — ^^THE RACES OF CASTLEBAr/' 

When the insurrection of 1798 had been nearly exhausted 
Lord Cornwallis was selected to complete the project of a 
union, and Lord Castlereagh was continued as Chief Sec- 
retary. His system was, of all others, the most artful and 
insidious; he affected impartiality, whilst he was deceiving 
both parties; he encouraged the United Irishman and he 
roused the royalist; one day he destroyed, the next day he 
was merciful. His system, however, had not exactly the an- 
ticipated effect. Everything gave reason to expect a restora- 
tion of tranquillity; it was through the impression of horror 
alone that a union could be effected, and he had no time to 
lose, lest the country might recover its reason. 

A portion of an armament, destined by France to aid the 
Irish insurgents, had escaped our cruisers, and landed about 
a thousand troops at Killala Bay. They entered Killala 
:without opposition, surprising the bishop and a company ot 
parsons who were on their visitation. Nothing could be bet- 
ter than their conduct, and the bishop in a publication on this 
event did them ample justice, at the expense of his own trans- 
lation. 

They were joined by a considerable number of peasantry, 
unarmed, unclothed, and undisciplined. But the French did 
the best they could to render them efficient. After some stay 
at Killala they determined to march into the country, and 
even with that small force they expressed but little doubt of 
reaching the metropolis. 

Lord Hutchinson commanded the garrison of Castlebar, a 
few miles from Killala. His force being pretty numerous, 
with a good train of artillery, he had no suspicion that a 
handful of French would presume to attack him. 

General Lake, with his staff, had just arrived and taken, 
the command (as an elder officer), as Lord Hutchinson had 
determined to march the ensuing day and end the question by 
a capture of the French detachment. The repose of the gen- 
erals was of short duration. Early in the morning they were 
roused by an account that the French and peasantry were in 

483 



484 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

full march upon tliem. They immediately beat to arms and 
the troops were moved to a position about a mile from Castle- 
bar, which to an unskilled person seemed unassailable. They 
had scarcely been posted, with nine pieces of cannon, when 
the French appeared on the opposite side of a small lake, de- 
scending a hill in columns, directly in front of the English. 
Our artillery played on them with effect. The French kept 
up a scattered fire of musketry and took up the attention of 
our army by irregular movements. In half an hour, how- 
ever, our troops were alarmed by a movement of small bodies 
to turn to their left, which, being covered by walls, they had 
never apprehended. The orders given were either mistaken 
or misbelieved; the line wavered and in a few minutes the 
whole of the royal army was completely routed; the flight 
of the infantry was as that of a mob, all the royal artillery 
was taken, our army fled to Castlebar, the heavy cavalry 
galloped amongst the infantry and Lord Joycelyn's light 
dragoons, and made the best of their way, through thick and 
thin, to Castlebar and towards Tuam, pursued by such of 
the French as could get horses to carry them. 

About nine hundred French and some peasants took pos- 
session of Castlebar without resistance, except from a few 
Highlanders stationed in the town, who were soon destroyed. 

This battle has been generally called the Races of Castle- 
bar. A considerable part of the Louth and Kilkenny regi- 
ments, not finding it convenient to retreat, thought the next 
best thing they could do would be to join the victors, which 
they immediately did, and in one hour were completely 
equipped as French riflemen. About ninety of those men 
were hanged by Lord Cornwallis afterwards at Ballynamuck. 
One of them defended himself by insisting "that it was the 
army and not he who were deserters ; that whilst he was fight- 
ing hard they all ran away and left him to be murdered." 
Lord Jocelyn got him saved. The defeat of Castlebar, how- 
ever, was a victory to the Viceroy; it revived all the hor- 
rors of the rebellion which had been subsiding, and the de- 
sertion of the militia regiments tended to impress the gentry 
[with an idea that England alone could protect the country. 

Lord Cornwallis was supine, and the insurgents were ac- 
tive in profiting by this victory ; 40,000 of them were prepar- 
ing to assemble at the Crooked Wood, in Westmeath, only 
42 miles from Dublin, ready to join the French and march 
upon the metropolis, 



In the Days of Grattan 485 

The French continued too long at Castlebar, and Lord 
Cornwallis at length collected 20,000 troops with which he 
considered himself pretty certain of conquering 900 men. 
With above 20,000 men he marched directly to the Shannon 
to prevent their passage, but he was out-manoeuvered ; the 
insurgents had led the French to the source of the river and 
it was ten days before his Lordship, by the slowest possible 
marches (which he did purposely to increase the public ter- 
ror), reached his enemy. But he overdid the matter, and had 
not Colonel Vereker (Lord Gort) delayed them in a rather 
sanguinary skirmish, in which he was defeated, it was possi- 
ble that they might have slipped by his Lordship and have 
been revelling in Dublin, whilst he was roaming about the 
Shannon; however, he at length overtook the enemy. Lord 
Jocelyn's fox-hunters were determined to retrieve their char- 
acter lost at Castlebar, and a squadron, led by his Lordship, 
made a bold charge upon the French ; but the French opened, 
then closed on them, and they were beaten, and his Lordship 
was made prisoner. 

The French corps, however, saw that ultimate success was 
impossible, having not more than nine hundred French troops, 
and they afterwards surrendered prisoners of war without 
further resistance, after having penetrated to the heart of the 
kingdom. They were sent to Dublin and afterwards to 
France. 

Horrors now were everywhere recommenced; executions 
were multiplied. Lord Cornwallis marched against the peas- 
antry, still masters of Killala ; and after a sanguinary conflict 
in the streets, the town was taken; some were slaughtered, 
many hanged, and the whole district was on the point of being- 
reduced to subjection, when Lord Cornwallis most unexpect- 
edly proclaimed an armistice, and without any terms per- 
mitted the insurgents freely to disperse and gave them thirty 
days either to surrender their arms or be prepared for 
slaughter, leaving them to act as they thought proper in the 
interval. This interval was terrific to the loyalists ; the thirty 
days of armistice were thirty days of new horror, and the 
Government had now achieved the very climax of public ter- 
ror, on which they so much counted for inducing Ireland to 
throw herself into the arms of the protecting country. And 
the first step of Mr. Pitt's project was fully consummated. 

Mr. Pitt now conceived that the moment had arrived to 
try the effect of his previous measures to promote a legisla- 



486 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

tive Union, and annihilate the Irish legislature. He conceived 
that he had already prepared inducements to suit every tem- 
per amongst the Irish Commons; in that he was partially 
mistaken. He believed that he had prepared the Irish Peers 
to accede to all his projects; in that he was successful. 

The able, arrogant, ruthless bearing of Lord Clare upon 
the woolsack had rendered him almost despotic in that im- 
becile assembly; forgetting their high rank, their country 
and themselves, they yielded unresistingly to the spell of his 
dictation, and, as the fascinated bird, only watched his eye 
and dropped one by one into the power of the serpent. 

The lure of translation neutralized the scruples of the 
Episcopacy. The Bishops yielded up their conscience to their 
interests, and but two of the spiritual Peers could be found 
to uphold the independence of their country, which had been 
so nobly attained and so corruptly extinguished. Marly, 
bishop of Waterford, and Dixon, bishop of Down, immortal- 
ized their name and their characters; they dared to oppose 
the dictator, and supported the rights of Ireland till she ceased 
to breathe longer under the title of a nation. 

This measure, of more vital importance than any that has 
ever been enacted by the British legislature, the fatal conse- 
quences of which are every day displaying, and still range 
far beyond the vision of short-sighted statesmen, was first 
proposed indirectly by a speech from the throne on the 22d of 
January, 1799. 

The insidious object of that speech to entrap the House 
into a conciliatory reply, was seen through, and resisted with 
a vigor which neither the English nor Irish governments had 
ever suspected. The horrors of civil war, the barbarities 
practised on the one side and sanctioned on the other, and 
the universal consternation of the whole kingdom— and, for- 
tunately for Mr. Pitt— excited in many the fallacious idea that 
in the arms of England only Ireland could regain and secure 
tranquillity. 

This shallow principle influenced or deluded many, but 
afforded to a greater number a specious pretence for sup- 
porting a measure which their individual or corrupt objects 
only induced them to sanction. 

To do justice or to detail the speeches on this great sub- 
ject, comprising as much eloquence as ever yet appeared in 
any legislative assembly, would be far too extensive a task 



In the Days of Grattan 487 

for this volume. Short abstracts only can now be given here, 
and the leading arguments condensed, so as to bring the ob- 
ject in all its important bearings before the capacity of every 
reader. 

Ireland was now reduced to a state fitted to receive prop- 
ositions for a Union. The loyalists were still struggling 
through the embers of a rebellion, scarcely extinguished by 
the torrents of blood which had been poured upon them ; the 
insurgents were artfully distracted between the hopes of 
mercy and the fears of punishment ; the Viceroy had seduced 
the Catholics by delusive hopes of emancipation, whilst the 
Protestants were equally assured of their ascendancy, and 
every encouragement was held out to the sectarians. Lord 
Cornwallis and Lord Castlereagh seemed to have been cre- 
ated for such a crisis and for each other. An unremitting 
perseverence, an absence of all political compunctions, an 
unqualified contempt of public opinion, and a disregard of 
every constitutional principle were common to both. They 
held that ''the object justifies the means;" and, unfortunate- 
ly, their private characters were calculated to screen their 
public conduct from popular suspicion. 

Lord Cornwallis, with the exception of the Union, which 
renders him the most prominent person in Irish history, had 
never succeeded in any of his public measures. His failure 
in America had deprived England of her colonies, and her 
army of its reputation; his catastrophe at Yorktown gave a 
shock to the King's mind from which, it is supposed, he never 
entirely recovered. In India he defeated Tippo Saib, but 
concluded a peace which only increased the necessity of fu- 
ture wars. Weary of the sword, he was sent as a diplomatist 
to conclude the peace of Amiens ; but, outmanceuvered by Lu- 
cien Buonaparte, his Lordship's treaty involved all Europe 
in a war against England. He had thought to conciliate 
Lucien by complimenting the First Consul, and sacrificed 
his sovereign's honorary title as King of France, which had 
been borne since the conquest of the Edwards and the Henrys, 
while he retained the title of Defender of the Faith, corruptly 
bestowed by the pope on a tyrant. This was the instrument 
now employed by Mr. Pitt to effect the Union. 

Lord Castlereagh had been more than seven years in the 
Irish Parliament, but was undistinguished. In private life 
his honorable conduct, gentlemanly habits and engaging de- 



488 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

meaner were exemplary. Of his public life, the commence- 
ment was patriotic, the progress corrupt, and the termina- 
tion criminal. His first public essay was a motion to reform 
the Irish Parliament, and his last to annihilate it. It is im- 
posible to deny a fact so notorious. History, tradition, or 
the fictions of romance contain no instance of any minister 
who so fearlessly deviated from all the principles which 
ought to characterize the servant of a constitutional mon- 
arch or the citizen of a free country. Incontestible facts 
prove the justice of this observation. 

The rebellion had commenced on the 23d of May 1798, and 
on the 22d of January, 1799, a union was proposed. The 
commercial propositions had taught Mr. Pitt that, in a period 
of tranquillity nothing could be effected with the Irish Par- 
liament by fraud or delusion. But for the terrors of the re- 
bellion the proposal of a union might have united all parties 
against the Government, and Lord Cornwallis's unexampled 
warfare against nine hundred Frenchmen was evidently in- 
tended more for terror than for victory. 

Mr. Pitt's project was first decidedly announced by a 
pamphlet written by Mr. Edward Cooke, the Under-Secre- 
tary, entitled ''Arguments for and against a Union consid- 
ered." It was plausibly written, and it roused the people 
from their confidence that no English minister dared pro- 
pose, or Irishman abet, a destruction of that independence 
which Ireland had possessed less than eighteen years. Mr. 
Cooke was promptly replied to by a pamphlet entitled 
''Cease Your Funning," a masterpiece of its kind, which, in 
the garb of wit and irony, conveyed the most skillful reason- 
ing and rendered Mr. Cooke's publication perfectly ridicu- 
lous. The author was then deservedly high at the Irish bar, 
and is now its first law dignitary. It was sent to press five 
days after the first line was written. Above a hundred 
pamphlets were published on both sides of the question, but 
it was some time before the whole nation could believe such 
a measure dare be attempted. 

The bar in Ireland was formerly not a working trade, but 
a proud profession, filled by gentlemen of birth and fortune, 
who were then residents in their country. The Government, 
the Parliament, every municipality then felt the influence of 
that profession, whose principal pride it always was to defend 
the Constitution. The number of offices connected with the 



In the Days of Grattan 489 

law were then comparatively few. The estimable Lord Lif- 
ford, at his death, was succeeded on the woolsack by Lord 
Clare, who immediately gave the utmost latitude to his arbi- 
trary temper and despotic principles as Chancellor. 

He commenced his office with a splendor far exceeding 
all precedent. He expended four thousand guineas for a 
state carriage; his establishment was splendid, and his en- 
tertainments magnificent. His family connections absorbed 
the patronage of the State, and he became the most absolute 
subject that modern times had seen in the British islands. 
His only check was the bar, which he resolved to corrupt. 
He doubled the nmnber of the bankrupt commissioners; he 
revived some offices, created others, and, under the pretence 
of furnishing each county with a local judge, in two months 
he established thirty- two new offices of about six or seven 
hundred pounds per annum each. His arrogance in court in- 
timidated many whom his patronage could not corrupt, and 
he had no doubt of overpowering the whole profession. 

A meeting of the Bar, however, to discuss the Union, was 
called on the 9th of December, 1799, at the Exhibition Room, 
William Street, and Mr. Smith, as the father of the Bar, was 
voted in the chair. Among those who had called the meet- 
ing were fourteen of the King's counsel— E. Mayne, W. 
Saurin, W. C. Plunket, C. Bushe, W. Sankey, B. Burton, J. 
Barrington, A. McCartney, G. O'Farrell, J. O'Driscoll, J. 
Lloyd, P. Burrowes, R. Jobb and H. Joy, Esquires. 

M. Saurin opened the debate. His speech was vapid and 
his resolution unpointed, but he had great influence in his 
profession. He was a moderate Huguenot and grandson of 
the great preacher at the Hague ; he was an excellent lawyer 
and an amiable, pious Christian. He was followed by Cap- 
tain Spencer, of the barristers' cavalry. 

Mr. Saint George Daly, a briefless barrister, was the first 
supporter of the Union. Of all men he was the least thought 
of for preferment ; but it was wittily observed ''that the Union 
was the first brief Mr. Daly had spoken from." He moved 
an adjournment. 

Mr. Thomas Grady was the Fitzgibbon spokesman— a gen- 
tleman of independent property, a tolerable lawyer, an ama- 
tory poet, a severe satirist, and an indefatigable quality- 
hunter. He had written the "Flesh Brush/* for Lady Clare ; 
the "West Briton/' for the Union; the "Barrister," for the 



490 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

bar, and the "Nosegay," for a banker at Limerick, who sued 
him successfully for a libel. 

''The Irish," said Mr. Grady, ''are only the rump of an 
aristocracy. Shall I visit posterity with a system of war, 
pestilence and famine? No! no! Give me a Union. Unite 
me to that country where all is peace, and order, and pros- 
perity. Without a Union we shall see embryo chief-judges, 
attorneys general in perspective, and animalcula Serjeants. 
All the cities of the south and west are on the Atlantic Ocean, 
between the rest of the world and Great Britain ; they are all 
for it ; they must all become warehouses ; the people are Cath- 
olics, and they are all for it." Such an oration as Mr. Grady's 
had never before been heard at a meeting of lawyers of Eu- 
rope. 

Mr. John Beresford, Lord Clare's nephew and purse- 
bearer, followed, as if for the charitable purpose of taking 
the laugh from Mr. Grady, in which he perfectly succeeded 
by turning it on himself. Mr. Beresford afterwards became 
a parson, and is now Lord Decies. 

Mr. Goold said: "There are 40,000 British troops in Ire- 
land, and with 40,000 bayonets at my breast, the minister 
shall not plant another Sicily in the bosom of the Atlantic. 
I want not the assistance of divine inspiration to foretell, for 
I am enabled by the visible and unerring demonstrations of 
nature to assert that Ireland was destined to be a free and 
independent nation. Our patent to be a state, not a shire, 
comes direct from heaven. The Almighty has, in majestic 
characters, signed the great charter of our independence. 
The great Creator of the world has given our beloved coun- 
try the gigantic outlines of a kingdom. The God of nature 
never intended that Ireland should be a province, and, hy 
G , she never shall." 

The assembly burst into a tumult of applause; a repeti- 
tion of the words came from many mouths, and many an 
able lawyer swore hard upon the subject. The division was : 

Against the Union 166 

In favor of it 32 

Majority 134 

Soon after this decision Sir Jonah Barrington resigned his 
commission as an officer of the Barristers' Cavalry, and the 
corps shortly after ceased to act. 



In the Days of Grattan 491 

''Letter from Sir Jonah Barrington to Captain Saurin, 
Barristers' Cavalry: 

''Merrion Square, Jan. 20th, 1799. 

''Permit me to resign, through you, the commission which 
I hold in the Lawyers' Cavalry; I resign it with the regret 
of a soldier who knows his duty to his King, yet feels his 
duty to his country, and will depart from neither but with his 
life. 

' ' That blind and fatal measure proposed by the Irish Gov- 
ernment to extinguish the political existence of Ireland, to 
surrender its legislature, its trade, its dearest rights and 
proudest prerogatives into the hands of a British minister 
and a British council savors too much of that foreign prin- 
ciple against the prevailing influence of which the united pow- 
ers of Great Britain and Ireland are at this moment com- 
batting, and as evidently throws open to the British Empire 
the gate of that seductive political innovation which has al- 
ready proved the grave of half the governments of Europe. 

"Consistent, therefore, with my loyalty and my oath, I 
can no longer continue subject to the indefinite and unfore- 
seen commands of a military government which so madly 
hazards the integrity of the British Empire and existence of 
the British Constitution to crush a rising nation and aggran- 
dize a despotic minister. 

"Blinded by my zealous and hereditary attachment to 
the established government and British connection, I saw not 
the absolute necessity of national unanimity to secure consti- 
tutional freedom ; I see it now, and trust it is not yet too late 
to establish both. 

"I never will abet a new developed system, treacherous 
and ungrateful, stimulating two sects against each other, to 
enfeeble both, and then making religious feuds a pretext for 
political slavery. 

"Eejecting the experiment of a reform and recommend- 
ing the experiment of a revolution. 

"Kindling Catholic expectation to a blaze and then ex- 
tinguishing it forever. 

"Alternately disgusting the rebel and the royalist by in- 
discriminate pardon and indiscriminate punishment. 

' ' Suspending one code of laws and adjudging by another 
without authority to do either ; and when the country, wearied 
by her struggles for her King, slumbers to refresh and regain 



492 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

her vigor, her liberty is treacherously attempted to be bound, 
and her pride, her security and her independence are to be 
buried alive in the tomb of national annihilation. 

' '■ Mechanical obedience is the duty of a soldier, but active, 
uninfluenced integrity, the indispensable attribute of a legis- 
lator when the preservation of his country is in question, and 
as the same frantic authority which meditates our civil anni- 
hilation might in the same frenzy meditate military projects 
from which my feelings, my principles, and my honor might 
revolt, I feel it right to separate my civil and military func- 
tions, and, to secure the honest, uninterrupted exercise of 
the one, I relinquish the indefinite subjection of the other. 

' ' I return the arms I received from the Government ; I re- 
ceived them pure and restore them not dishonored. 

''I shall now resume my civil duties with zeal and with 
energ^^ elevated by the hope that the Irish Parliament, true 
to itself and honest to its country, will never assume a power 
extrinsic of its delegation, and will convince the British na- 
tion that we are a people equally impregnable to the attacks 
of intimidation or the shameless practice of corruption. 

*' Yours, 

Jonah Bareington, 
'' Lieutenant L. Cavalry." 

The Eight Honorable James Fitzgerald, then prime-ser- 
geant, was dismissed from office, having peremptorily refused 
to vote for the Union. The office of prime-sergeant, unknown 
in England, in Ireland took precedence of the Attorney and 
Solicitor General. The emoluments were very great; Mr. 
Saint George Daly was immediately rewarded by that office, 
to the duties of which he was totally incompetent, never hav- 
ing been in any considerable practice at the bar. 

A meeting was then called to express to Mr. Fitzgerald the 
thanks of his profession for his disinterested patriotism; 
never was there a more just and honorable tribute paid to 
an honest public character. 

The bar had also determined that the precedence in the 
courts should be continued by Mr. Fitzgerald; to this Lord 
Glare would not accede, and he treated the subject with great 
arrogance in his court. That session concluded without any 
other meeting of the profession. 

The day after that debate Mr. Saint George Daly drew 
up a protest of the minority, some of whom refused to sign 



In the Days of Grattan 493 

it; he got some substitutes, so as to keep up his number of 
thirty-two, but not one person of professional eminence, of 
public character or independence appeared in the whole num- 
ber; it was universally ridiculed, but Mr. Daly carried his 
object, his own promotion. 

Five of the debates on the Union in the Irish Commons 
comprised everything of the first importance upon the sub- 
ject ; of these, three took place in January, 1799, whilst men 
were impressed with the horrors of the rebellion and the 
fears of a French invasion. The debates of 1800 were after 
the Parliament had been packed through the Place Bill. The 
competence of Parliament to relinquish the Constitution and 
their own existence was discussed with extraordinary ability. 

The first debate took place on the 22d of January, 1799, 
and lasted till eleven o'clock in the morning of the 23d, or 
twenty- two hours. The Government obtained a majority of 
only one, and that by the palpable seduction of Mr. Fox. The 
second debate commenced at five o 'clock on the same day and 
continued till late in the morning of the 24th, when, the coun- 
try being roused, the Treasury Bench was unexpectedly de- 
feated. 

The speech from the Viceroy, delivered on the opening 
of the session, which gave rise to the debate of the 22d of Jan- 
uary, recommended "the unremitting industry with which 
our enemies persevere in their avowed design of endeavor- 
ing to effect a separation of this kingdom from Great Britain 
must have engaged your particular attention, and His Maj- 
esty commands me to express his anxious hope that this con- 
sideration, joined to the sentiment of mutual affection and 
common interest, may dispose the Parliaments in both king- 
doms to provide the most effectual means of maintaining a 
connection essential to their common security, and of con- 
solidating as far as possible into one firm and lasting fabric 
the strength, the power and the resources of the British Em- 
pire." The address to that speech, almost an echo, was 
moved by Lord Tyrone, who thus stamped for himself an eter- 
nal impression on the annals of Ireland. He was the eldest 
son of the Marquis of Waterford, a keen and haughty noble- 
man, possessed of that local influence which rank, extensive 
connections, unlimited patronage and ostentatious establish- 
ments are almost certain to acquire ; inflated with aristocratic 
pride and blinded by egotism, he became a powerful instru- 



494 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ment of Lord Clare's ambition, whilst lie conceived that he 
was only gratifying his own. Lord Clare, at that period, 
had covered the surface of the nation with the partisans of 
the Beresfords and himself, and no family ever possessed 
so many high and lucrative employments ; they had no talent, 
no public services, no political honesty, which should have 
entitled them to the authority they exercised over their sover- 
eign and country. 

Lord Tyrone, an automaton of Lord Clare, possessed 
plain manners, an open countenance, a slothful, uncultivated 
mind, unsusceptible of any refined impressions or patriotic 
feelings; the example of his relatives gave him no stimulus 
beyond that of lucrative patronage. Whatever were his in- 
dividual opinions upon the Union, his vapid, disingenuous 
and arrogant speech evinced that he was not calculated to 
give weight to his family; his speech had been written by 
his friends, and, concealing it in the crown of his hat, he 
took a glance at it when at a loss; the exhibition, on such a 
subject, was too disgusting to be ridiculous. Lord Clare, on 
this occasion, exhibited the voracity of his ambition. The 
ancient and proud house of Beresford was, on that night, 
cringing as the vassals of an arrogant and splendid upstart. 

The address was seconded by Mr. Eobert Fitzgerald, of 
Corkbeg, an elderly country gentleman; he had an honest 
character, blunt, candid manners, and though he had no tal- 
ent, he could deliver himself with some strength and with 
the appearance of sincerity. His speech on this occasion was 
short and feeble. He had been artfully seduced as a lure 
to the country gentlemen by Lord Cornwallis's assuring him 
that, in the event of the Union, a royal dock-yard would be 
built near Cork, which would double the value of his estates. 

In every debate upon that measure it was insisted that 
the Parliament was incompetent, even to entertain the ques- 
tion of the Union ; such was the opinion of Mr. Saurin, since 
'Attorney General; Mr. Plunket, since Lord Chancellor; Ser- 
jeant Ball, the ablest lawyer of Ireland; Mr, Fitzgerald, 
Prime-Serjeant of Ireland; Mr, Moore, since a judge; Sir 
John Parnell, then Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Mr. Bushe^. 
since Chief Justice, and Lord Oriel, the then speaker of the 
House of Commons. Nearly every unbribed or uninfluenced 
member of the learned profession adopted the doctrine of 
which these learned and able men were the unqualified or- 



In the Days of Grattan 



495 



gans. Lord Glenbervie, in his famous speech in favor of the 
Union, in the English House of Commons, in 1800, expressed 
his surprise that Messrs. Saurin, Plunket and Barrington 
could reason upon such an untenable position. He admitted 
their sincerity, but considered them not quite clear in their 
intellects. His own speech was splendidly written, but was 
miserably heavy. The Irish Union materially changed the 
representation of England, and altered the letter and spirit 
of the Scotch treaty; Ireland, however, was alone disfran- 
chised. 

Mr. John Ball, Member for Drohega, who gave his un- 
qualified opinion as to the legal and constitutional incapacity 
of the Commons to enact the Union, was the ablest lawyer of 
his day, and one of the purest characters, public and private, 
that had ever flourished in Ireland; amiable and consistent 
in every station and in every capacity, combining spirit and 
mildness, fortitude and moderation, he was cast in one of 
the finest molds of firmness and patriotism. During his 
progress from comparative obscurity to the attachment and 
highest esteem of his profession and of the public, he evinced 
an independence above all temptation. Though the ablest 
lawyer of his day, he was passed over in all Lord Clare's 
promotions. 




Sculpture on a Capital. Priest's House, Glendalough; Beranger. 1770 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

ARGUMENTS IN PARLIAMENT FOR THE UNION— VIOLENT SPEECH BJ 
LORD CASTLEREAGH — PATRIOTISM OF SIR JOHN PARNELL. 

It would be impossible to do justice to the brilliant elo- 
quence and unanswerable reasoning by which this measure 
was combatted. Even a short abstract of the speeches deliv- 
ered on that momentous question would swell this volume 
beyond its intended limits. At present it must suffice to state 
the abstract points on which the arguments of Government 
for annexation were fou^nded and those by which they were 
so ably and unanswerably refuted. First, the distracted state 
of the Irish Nation, its religious dissensions and the conse- 
quent danger of a separation, unless protected from so im- 
minent a peril by the incorporation with Great Britain, and 
the incapacity of the Irish legislature alone to avert the dan- 
gers of the country and preserve the constitution. Secondly, 
the great commercial advantages of a Union which must 
eventually enrich Ireland by an extension of its commerce, 
the influx of British capital and the confidence of England in 
the stability of its institutions when guaranteed by the Union. 
Thirdly, the Government pressed with great zeal the example 
of Scotland, which had so improved and become so rich and 
prosperous after its annexation, a precedent which must con- 
vince the Irish of the incalculable advantages which must 
ensue from a similar incorporation. 

Many other arguments, but of a minor description, were 
urged by the purchased partisans of the Government. But 
the leading points which elicited the splendid eloquence, the 
reasoning and the high spirits of its opponents, were exem- 
plified by the argument of Mr. George Ponsonby. 

Sir Lawrence Parsons and many others, in reply, not only 
animated but convinced the assembly; the facts were too 
strong to be refuted that the country had been worked up 
by the English minister to terrify the Irish gentry into a re- 
submission to those shackles from which the spirit of the 
Volunteers and of the nation had but a few years before re- 
leased them. They asked, what could the Union do which 
could not be done without it? 

497 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

There was no species of aid, no auxiliary power which 
England could afford to give Ireland, either to restore or se- 
cure her tranquillity, that Ireland had not fully within her 
own reach and power. She had men, she had means, she had 
arms, she had spirit, she had loyalty, all in her domestic cir- 
cle, sufficient to restore her to peace, which had for a mo- 
ment been interrupted by the machinations of those who would 
now take advantage of their own treachery. The Irish Par- 
liament had within her own walls the power of reconciling 
religious differences, restoring peace or putting down insur- 
rection, far more effectually than the English Government 
could pretend to possess. 

It was argued that the insurrection, first organized and 
fostered by Mr. Pitt, and protracted by Lord Cornwallis, had 
been suppressed by the active zeal and measures of the Irish 
Parliament; and that the introduction of foreign and mer- 
cenary Germans, to immolate the Irish, instead of tending 
to extinguish, added fuel to the conflagration and excited the 
strongest feelings of retaliation; nor could the people of in- 
dependent Ireland brook the idea of being cut down by the 
Welshmen. 

It was not to the arms of England, but to the distinguished 
loyalty of the Irish Commons and the prompt and vigorous 
measures of the Irish Parliament, that the speedy termina- 
tion of that insurrection was to be attributed. The English 
militia were brought over, after the contest had nearly ended, 
and never fired a shot in Ireland. They conducted themselves 
with decorum and due discipline, and returned to England 
with at least as good character as they left it. The German 
mercenaries who were wantonly imported, as if to teach bar- 
barity to the Irish insurgents, amply experienced by their 
own blood the expertness of their pupils, and only aggravated 
that people whom they had been brought to conquer. 

The argument, therefore, that the Irish legislature had 
not sufficient power to protect itself was unfounded and fal- 
lacious, and only invented to keep up and augment the ter- 
rors of the Irish gentry. 

The second ground of argument used by the supporters 
of the Union, great commercial advantages, appeared still 
more fallacious ; its deception was too palpable to deceive the 
most ignorant of the people. 

The proposers of the Union were asked what were the 
commercial advantages which Ireland could possibly gain by 



In the Days of Grattan 499 

a Union that she might not equally attain through her own 
Parliament without one. She was an independent nation, 
she had an independent legislature, she might regulate her 
own tariffs and conduct her commerce by her own statutes; 
the reciprocal connection of the two countries was an equal 
object to the commercial interests of both. 

The non-importation and non-consumption resolutions of 
Ireland had once brought back the English monopolists to 
their reason; the same power remained to the Irish people. 
If she could resist commercial restraints in 1782, with ten- 
fold more facility, she could resist them in 1800; she could 
trade with more success, because she had since learned the 
rudiments of commerce from a participation in which the 
avarice of monopolists and the unjust jealousies of Great 
Britain had theretofore excluded her. 

The crafty prediction that English capital would flow into 
Ireland when a Union was effected was a visionary decep- 
tion. For more capital would be annually withdrawn from 
Ireland by the emigration of the landed proprietors in con- 
sequence of the Union than could be gained by any accession 
of British capital. Ireland was an agricultural country ; her 
natural fertility pointed out to her the true source of her 
internal employment and proper subjects of her external com- 
merce, and when the famine which the slightest stagnation of 
trade causes amongst the manufacturers of the first towns 
of England, the decrepitude of their meagre operatives, the 
wretched enervating slavery to which the necessity of the 
parents and the brutality of the manufacturer condemn the 
infants of that nation, are considered, it would make a suffi- 
cient reply to either the certainty or the consequence of Brit- 
ish capital. 

The third and most deceptions argument of the Union sup- 
porters because the most plausible, was the precedent of Scot- 
land and the great advantages derived by her in consequence 
of her Union. 

Of all the false reasoning, misstated facts, fallacious prem- 
ises and unfounded conclusions that any position ever was 
attempted to be supported on, the arguments founded on the 
Scottish precedent were the most erroneous, and no decep- 
tion ever was more completely and fully detected than by the 
speeches made in the Irish Parliament in 1799 and 1800, and 
by several able pamphlets which at that period flowed in full 
tide upon the public. 



500 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

These replies being founded on matters of fact and attest- 
ed by incontrovertible records, put at once a decisive conclu- 
sion to every argument deduced by the advocates of Union 
from that subject. 

First, as to matter of fact, Scotland and Ireland, in their 
relations with England, stood on grounds diametrically oppo- 
site to each other on every point that could warrant a Union 
on the one side or reject it on the other. 

Scotland and England forming only one island, divided 
by a frontier many parts of which a man could step over, had 
ever been in a state of sanguinary warfare. The facility of 
invasion on both sides left no moment of a certain undis- 
turbed tranquillity to either. Their inroads were incessant, 
their reconciliations only the forerunner of new contests, in- 
terrupted by short intervals of peace until the accession of 
Mary. She had been Queen of France, and on her return 
to her native country introduced a French connection with 
Scotland, which added to the excitement of both nations, and 
naturally increased the apprehensions of England from the 
power of a neighbor so supported as Scotland then must 
have been. 

The two crowns were united in the person of James the 
First, and in the reign of Charles the Scottish army renounced 
their allegiance and sold their King and surrendered him 
to his enemies, and eventually to the executioner. It was 
considered by King William III. when he usurped the British 
throne that if they so acted by one King they might do so 
by another, and his sanguinary conduct towards that coun- 
try still widened the breach between the two nations. At 
length the reign of Anne brought the question of Union for- 
ward, not as in Ireland, a mere voluntary discussion, buf 
one of absolute necessity. 

Had Anne died childless the crowns must have been sev- 
ered, and that old Scotland, by descent, would have gone 
to the Scottish Duke of Hamilton, as Hanover was, on the 
demise of his late Majesty, separated from England. This 
important fact puts an end to all comparison between the 
relative state of the two countries. 

The Scottish Parliament, to put an end to all doubts on the 
subject of separation, passed an act entitled the Act of Se- 
curity. By that statute the Scottish Parliament enacted that 
the crown of Scotland should never be worn by the same 



In the Days of Grattan 501 

monarch as that of England. By the Irish parliament it was 
enacted that the two crowns should ''ever" be worn by the 
same monarch and never disunite. 

Thus it incontestibly appears by an act of Scotland her- 
self that without a Scottish Union England and Scotland, 
though on the same island, must in a short space of time have 
been constitutionally severed and governed by different and 
distinct monarchs forever, whereas Ireland, though a differ- 
ent and distinct island, with a great intervening sea, had de- 
cided the very reverse, and had united herself indissolubly 
and voluntarily to England by a mutual federative compact, 
both crowns to be forever worn by the same monarch. 

How the supporters of the Irish Union, therefore, could 
have the face to call in the Scottish Union as a precedent to 
show the necessity of an Irish Union can only be accounted for 
by that voluntary blindness and premeditated absence of all 
candor and liberality which are the inseparable companions 
of political delinquency. 

But, in fact, the supporters of an Irish Union were them- 
selves the greatest enemies to British connection, for this 
clear and obvious reason : the Scottish Union was a matter of 
state necessity ; the connection of England and Ireland a mu- 
tual international compact, and as such equally binding, sa- 
cred and inviolable on both sides; and as the principle of 
all international as well as individual contracts, is binding 
just so long as the mutual compacts are adhered to. Such a 
mutual, sacred, and international compact, voluntarily, con- 
stitutionally and legally guaranteed by both legislatures, con- 
firmed by the King of both countries in his double capacity, 
and touched by his sceptre, had been enacted and did exist 
between England and Ireland long previous to the measure 
of a Union, so pressed on Ireland by England ; such a Union 
was therefore a direct unequivocal infraction of that inter- 
national treaty and federative compact, the mutual and in- 
violable adherence to which, in all its provisions, was the only 
valuable consideration to Ireland. 

It was truly argued that in this point of view, therefore, 
no similarity existed between the position of Scotland and 
Ireland, when the Irish nobles were cashiered of their hered- 
itary honor and the Irish people plundered of two-ihirds of 
their constitutional representation. 

Another fact stated and most ably reasoned on during 
the Irish Union to prove the absurdity of the attempted com- 



502 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

parison was that the Scottish and Irish Parliaments, at that 
period, had in their organization and proceedings no simili- 
tude whatsoever; the Lords and Commons of Scotland formed 
but one chamber, the representatives of the people (such as 
they were) and the Peers called the hereditary counsellors 
of the crown sat mingled and voted together promiscuously; 
nothing like the British constitution even in theory existed in 
Scotland; church, state and legislation had no analogy; ma- 
terials of legislation and a species of imperium in imperio, 
entirely inconsistent with the constitution of the superior na- 
tion, could not continue to exist in the same island without 
the daily probability of collision and the danger of hostilities, 
aided by the facility of invasion by either country ; this condi- 
tion imperatively required some means to avert so probable 
and imminent a danger to both countries. 

No such dangers, however, existed as to Ireland; and if 
she had not been politically excited by the British minister, 
and by the example of England and Scotland, or even after 
that excitement had subsided, and put an end to, had she 
been permitted to rest, and regain her tranquillity and vigor, 
and proper measures had been then adopted to continue that 
tranquillity, no country on earth had more capabilities, and 
no country in Europe would have been more prosperous, 
tranquil, and happy than misgoverned Ireland. 

The grand and fundamental point which was then urged, 
reasoned upon, and which never has, and never can be re- 
futed, was the incompetence of Parliament to betray its trust. 
"Whilst the first elements of the British constitution exist, that 
principle is its surest protection; the entire incompetence of 
representatives elected by the people, as their delegated trus- 
tees, to represent them in the great national inquest, and as 
such trustees and guardians to preserve the rights and con- 
stitution so entrusted to them inviolate; and at the expira- 
tion of the term of that trust, deliver back their trust to their 
constituents as they received it, to be replaced in their own 
hands, or of other trustees for another term. But they had, 
and could have no power to betray their trust, convert it to 
their own corrupt purposes, or transfer the most valuable of 
all funds, an independent constitution, the integrity of which 
they became trustees solely for the purpose of protecting. 

This being a fundamental principle of British law, is 
placed under the protection of the Judges; and the very 



In the Days of Grattan 503 

essence, first principle and element of British equity is placed 
under the protection of the Chancellor. That high function- 
ary, in his double capacity, of the first judge of the country, 
and also the adviser of the King in all cases within his juris- 
diction, is bound to support by authorities that principle 
which forms the only safeguard to the British Constitution. 

Many of the ablest lawyers of 1799 and 1800, justly esti- 
mated for their deep knowledge, great talents, and incor- 
ruptible integrity, gave both in and out of Parliament un- 
qualified and decided opinions which are too important not 
to be recorded; they entirely denied the competence of the 
Irish Commons, to pass or to even receive any act of Union 
extinguishing their own existence and betraying the trusts 
they were delegated to protect. When the names of Saurin, 
Ponsonby, Plunket, Ball, Bushe, Curran, Burrowes, Fitz- 
gerald, A. Moore, etc., are found supporting that doctrine by 
their learning, their public character, and their legal reputa- 
tion; and such men as Grattan, Parsons, Forbes, Parnell, 
O'Hara, etc., etc., united with Corry, Clements, Caulfield, 
Cole, Kingsborough, etc., and the flower of the young Irish 
nobles, in the Commons House of Parliament; it is impos- 
sible not to accede to a doctrine, supported by every principle 
of law, equity, and constitution. 

This great fact, therefore (and the irrefragible authori- 
ties on which it rests are repeated, and spread over many 
parts of this history) , necessarily produces a deduction more 
intrinsically important, and involving more grave considera- 
tions, than any other that can arise upon this subject. From 
these principles it follows as a corollary that the Act of 
Union carried by such means was in itself a nullity, and a 
fraud upon the then existing constitution; and if a nullity 
in 1800, it is incontrovertible that nothing afterwards did, 
or possibly could, validate it in 1833. 

No temporary assent, or in this case submission, could be 
deduced as an argument; no lapse of time, unless by pro- 
scription (beyond which the memory of man runneth not), 
can ever establish any Act originally illegal; no limitation 
through lapse of time can bar the rights and claims of the 
crown; there is no limitation, through lapse of time, to the 
church; no limitation, through lapse of time, can bar the 
chartered rights of even a petty corporation; and no lapse 
of time can legalize any act hostile to the rights of a free 



504 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

people, or extinguish the legislature of an independent nation. 
In that point of view, therefore, no legislative union ever was 
constitutionally enacted between the two countries. 

But considering that question in another point of view, it 
is the invariable principle of all international law that the 
infraction of a solemn treaty, on the one side, dispenses with 
any adherence to the same treaty by the other, of course 
annuls both, and leaves the contracting parties in statu quo, 
as they respectively stood before the treaty, and it was there- 
fore argued by those able men, that the renunciation act of 
the 23d George III., '^recognizing the unqualified independ- 
ence of Ireland, and expressly stipulating and contracting 
that it should endure forever," was the very essence, and 
consideration of the international and federative treaty; and 
through its infraction by England, both countries stood in the 
very same state as at the period when England repealed her 
own statute of George I., and admitted its unconstitutionality, 
and her own usurpation, Ireland, of course, remained in the 
same position as she stood at that period. 

From all these considerations it inevitably follows that if 
through force, or fraud, or fear, or corruption, in enacting it, 
the Union was null, then any act of the Imperial Parliament, 
repealing the Act of Union, would be in fact only repealing 
a nullity, and restoring to Ireland a legislature she had never 
been constitutionally deprived of. It was admitted that, had 
the infraction of the federative treaty been the act of Ire- 
land, then this reasoning would have lost its validity ; but the 
contrary is direct and indisputable. 

These arguments, and many more, were used both in and 
out of Parliament to arrest the progress of that destructive 
and faithless measure, but in vain ; however, two great events, 
so long and so violently resisted for more than a century, 
have lately been accomplished, which give rise to constitu- 
tional questions, and have materially changed the state both 
of the people and the legislature, roused Ireland from her 
torpor, and brought forward claims which had so long lain 
dormant. And it is by the late measures of England herself, 
that the Irish people have been led to consider that the nation 
was only in a slumber, and her legislature only in abeyance. 

These grave and embarrassing points of constitutional 
law were by various speeches and pamphlets combated by 
Mr, William Smith, who lent the whole power of his able and 



In the Days of Grattan 505 

indefatigable genius to prove tlie omnipotence of Parliament, 
and combat all the reasoning of those distinguished men who 
have been heretofore alluded to; particularly Mr. Foster, 
against whose doctrine he wrote a long and labored pamphlet. 

Baron Smith's ideas and reasoning are so metaphysically 
plaited and interwoven that facts are lost sight of in the mul- 
tiplicity and minuteness of theories and distinctions, and 
ordinary auditors, after a most learned, eloquent, and argu- 
mentative charge or argument, are seldom able to recollect 
a single sentence of either (the dogmas excepted), after they 
are out of the Court House. In all his arguments as to the 
omnipotence of the Irish Parliament to surrender its legisla- 
ture, he manufactures his theories, as if the Irish Commons 
submitted willingly to prostitutions, and argued in principle 
that if members were purchased it was a market' overt, and 
that the unconstitutionality of the sale merged in the om- 
nipotent majority of the purchaser. 

It is to be regretted that the learned Baron, who is always 
able, and frequently four days in the week patriotic; should in 
1800 have accepted a seat on the bench as a premium for his 
share of the omnipotency. The English people would have 
considered the Baron's reasoning, for the extinction of the 
Irish Parliament, in a very different point of view if it had 
been used by him to prove the expediency of removing the 
British Parliament to legislate in Dublin. 

A very remarkable incident during the first night's debate 
occurred in the conduct of Mr. Luke Fox and Mr. Trench, of 
Woodlawn, afterwards created Lord Ashtown. These were 
the most palpable, undisguised acts of public tergiversation 
and seduction ever exhibited in a popular assembly. They 
afterwards became the subject of many speeches and of many 
publications; and their consequences turned the majority of 
one in favor of the Minister. 

It was suspected that Mr. Trench had been long in negotia- 
tion with Lord Castlereagh, but it did not in the early part 
of that night appear to have been brought to any conclusion, 
his conditions were supposed to be too extravagant. Mr. 
Trench, after some preliminary observations, declared, in a 
speech, that he would vote against the Minister and support 
Mr. Ponsonby's amendment. This appeared a stunning blow 
to Mr. Cooke, who had been previously in conversation with 
Mr. Trench. He was immediately observed sidling from his 



506 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

seat nearer to Lord Castlereagh. They whispered earnestly, 
and, as if restless and undecided, both looked wistfully to- 
wards Mr. Trench. At length the matter seemed to be deter- 
mined upon. Mr. Cooke retired to a back seat, and was 
obviously endeavoring to count the house, probably to guess 
if they could that night dispense with Mr. Trench's services. 
He returned to Lord Castlereagh; they whispered, again 
looked most affectionately at Mr. Trench, who seemed un- 
conscious that he was the subject of their consideration. But 
there was no time to lose, the question was approaching, all 
shame was banished, they decided on teiins, and a significant 
and certain glance, obvious to everybody, convinced Mr. 
Trench that his conditions were agreed to. Mr. Cooke then 
went and sat down by his side ; an earnest but very short con- 
versation took place; a parting smile completely told the 
house that Mr. Trench was that moment satisfied. These 
surmises were soon verified. Mr. Cooke went back to Lord 
Castlereagh ; a congratulatory nod announced his satisfaction. 
But could any man for one moment suppose that a member 
of Parliament, a man of very large fortune, of respectable 
family^ and good character, could be publicly, and without 
shame or compunction, actually seduced by Lord Castlereagh, 
in the very body of the house, and under the eye of two 
hundred and twenty gentlemen? Yet this was the fact. In 
a few minutes Mr. Trench rose to apologize for having indis- 
creetly declared he would support the amendment. He added 
that he had thought better of the subject since he had un- 
guardedly expressed himself; that he had been convinced he 
was wrong, and would support the Minister. 

Scarcely was there a member of any party who was not 
disgusted; it had, however, the effect intended by the des- 
perate purchaser of proving that Ministers would stop at 
nothing to effect their objects, however shameless or corrupt. 
This purchase of Mr. Trench had a much more fatal effect 
upon the destinies of Ireland. His change of sides, and the 
majority of one to which it contributed, were probably the 
remote causes of persevering in a Union. Mr. Trench's 
venality excited indignation in every friend of Ireland. 

Another circumstance that night proved by what means 
Lord Castlereagh 's majority of even one was acquired. 

The Place Bill, so long and so pertinaciously sought for, 
and so indiscreetly framed by Mr. Grattan and the Whigs of 



In the Days of Grattan 507 

Ireland, now, for the first time, proved the very engine by 
which the Minister upset the opposition and annihilated the 
Constitution. 

That bill enacted that members accepting offices, places, 
or pensions during the pleasure of the Crown, should not sit 
in Parliament unless re-elected; but, unfortunately, the bill 
made no distinction between valuable offices which might in- 
fluence, and nominal offices which might job, and the Chiltern 
Hundreds of England were, under the title of the Escheator- 
ships of Munster, Leinster, Connaught, etc., transferred to 
Ireland, with salaries of forty shillings, to be used at pleasure 
by the Secretary. Occasional and temporary seats were thus 
bartered for by Government, and by the ensuing session made 
the complete and fatal instrument of packing the Parliament 
and effecting a Union. 

Mr. Luke Fox, a barrister of very humble origin, of vulgar 
manners and of a coarse, harsh appearance, was endued with 
a clear, strong, and acute mind, and was possessed of much 
cunning. He had acquired very considerable legal informa- 
tion, and was an obstinate and iDersevering advocate ; he had 
been the usher of a school, and a sizer in Dublin University ; 
but neither politics nor belles-lettres were his pursuit. On 
acquiring eminence at the bar, he married an obscure niece 
of the Earl of Ely's; he had originally professed what was 
called whiggism, merely, as people supposed, because his 
name was Fox. His progress was impeded by no political 
principles, but he kept his own secrets well, and being a man 
of no importance, it was perfectly indifferent to everybody 
what side he took. Lord Ely, perceiving he was manageable, 
returned him to Parliament as one of his autocrats ; and Mr. 
Fox played his part very much to the satisfaction of his 
manager. 

When the Union was announced, Lord Ely had not made 
his terms, and remained long in abeyance; and as his Lord- 
ship had not issued his orders to Mr. Fox, he was very un- 
willing to commit himself until he could dive deeper into 
probabilities ; but rather believing the opposition would have 
the majority, he remained in the body of the House with the 
Anti-Unionists, when the division took place. The doors were 
scarcely locked when he became alarmed and slunk, unper- 
ceived, into one of the dark corridors, where he concealed 
himself; he was, however, discovered and the sergeant-at- 



508 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

arms was ordered to bring liim forth to be counted amongst 
the Anti-Unionists; his confusion was very great, and he 
seemed at his wit's end; at length he declared he had taken 
advantage of the Place Bill, and actually accepted the Es- 
cheatorship of Munster, and had thereby vacated his seat and 
could not vote. 

The fact was doubted, but, after much discussion, his 
excuse, upon his honor, was admitted, and he was allowed to 
return into the corridor. On the numbers being counted, there 
was a majority of ONE for Lord Castlereagh, and, exclusive 
of Mr. Trench's conduct; but for that of Mr. Fox the num- 
bers would have been equal; the measure would have been 
negatived by the Speaker's vote, and the renewal of it, the 
next day, have been prevented ; this would have been a most 
important victory. 

The mischief of the Place Bill now stared its framers in 
the face, and gave the Secretary a code of instruction how 
to arrange a Parliament against the ensuing session. 

To render the circumstance still more extraordinary and 
unfortunate for Mr. Fox's reputation, it was subsequently 
discovered, by the public records, that Mr. Fox's assertion 
was false ; but the following day Lord Castlereagh purchased 
him outright ; and then, and not before, appointed him to the 
nominal ofSce of Escheator of Munster, and left the seat of 
Lord Ely for another of his creatures. This is mentioned not 
only as one of the most reprehensible public acts committed 
during the discussion, but because it was the primary cause 
of the measure being persisted in. 

The exultations of the public on this disappointment of the 
Minister knew no bounds; they reflected not that, next day, 
a new debate must endanger their ambiguous triumph. The 
national character of the Irish, during both the 23rd and 
24th, displayed itself in full vigor. 

The debate upon the report of the address, and the per- 
tinacity which urged the Government to a second combat, 
soon roused them from their dream of security. 

Both parties now stood in a difficult and precarious pre- 
dicament; the Minister had not time to gain ground by the 
usual practices of the Secretary, and the question must have 
been either totally relinquished or again discussed. The 
opposition were, as yet, uncertain how far the last debate 
might cause any numerical alteration in their favor; each 



In the Days of Grattan 509 

party calculated on a small majority, and it was considered 
that a defeat would be equally ruinous to either. 

It was supposed that the Minister would, according to all 
former precedent, withdraw from his situation, if left in a 
minority, whilst an increased majority, however small, against 
the Anti-Unionists, might give plausible grounds for future 
discussions. 

The next day the people collected in vast multitudes 
around the House; a strong sensation was everywhere per- 
ceptible; immense numbers of ladies of distinction crowded 
at an early hour into the galleries, and by their presence and 
their gestures animated that patriotic spirit upon the prompt 
energy of which alone depended the fate of Ireland. 

Secret messengers were dispatched in every direction to 
bring in loitering or reluctant members ; every emissary that 
Government could rely upon was busily employed the entire 
morning; and five and thirty minutes after four o'clock, in 
the afternoon of the 24th of January, 1799, the House met 
to decide, by the adoption or rejection of the Address, the 
question of national independence or annihilation. Within 
the corridors of the House a shameless and unprecedented 
alacrity appeared among the friends of Government. 

Mr. Cooke, the Under Secretary, who, throughout all the 
subsequent stages of the question was the private and efficient 
actuary of the Parliamentary seduction, on this night ex- 
ceeded even himself, both in his public and private exertions 
to gain over the wavering members. Admiral Pakenham, a 
naturally friendly and good-hearted gentleman, that night 
acted like the captain of a press-gang and actually hauled in 
some of the members who were desirous of retiring. He had 
declared that he would act in any capacity, according to the 
exigencies of his party; and he did not shrink from his task. 

Mr. Marshall, of the Secretary's office (not a member), 
forgot all decorum and disgraced the cause by his exploits 
about the entrances to the House. Others acted as keepers in 
the coffee-room; and no member who could be seduced, in- 
timidated, or deceived, could possibly escape the nets that 
were extended to secure him. 

Nor did the leaders of opposition remain inactive; but 
the attendance of their friends being voluntary, was, of 
course, precarious. The exertions of Mr. Bowes Daly and 
others were, however, strenuous. 



510 Ieeland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

At length a hot and open canvass, by the friends of Gov- 
ernment, was perceived, wherever an uncertain or reluctant 
member could be found, or his connections discovered. 

The debate commenced about seven o'clock. Silence pre- 
vailed in the galleries, but an indecent confusion and noise 
ran through the corridors, and frequently excited surprise and 
alarm at its continuance: it was the momentous canvass: it 
was rude, sometimes boisterous, and altogether unusual. 

The Speaker at length took his chair, and his . cry of 
* * Order ! order ! ' ' obtained a profound silence. Dignified and 
peremptory, he was seldom disobeyed; and a chairman more 
despotic, from his wisdom and the respect and affection of the 
members of every side, never presided over a popular 
assembly. 

"When prayers commenced, all was in a moment gloomy 
and decorous, and a deep solemnity corresponded with the 
vital importance of the subject they were to determine. 

This debate, in point of warmth, much exceeded the for- 
mer. Lord Castlereagh was silent; his eye ran around the 
assembly as if to ascertain the situation, and was often with- 
drawn with a look of uncertainty and disappointment. The 
numbers had a little increased since the last division, prin- 
cipally by members who had not declared themselves, and of 
whose opinions the Secretary was ignorant. 

Lord Castlereagh, however, wincing under his negative 
castigation of the former evening, had now determined to act 
on the offensive, and give, by his example, more spirit and 
zeal to his followers than they had hitherto exhibited. It was 
his only course, and though inoperative, it was ably at- 
tempted. 

The debate, however, had hardly commenced when he was 
assailed as if by a storm. Several members rose at once to 
tell the Secretary their opinions of his merits; a personal 
hostility appeared palpable between the parties ; the subject 
and arguments were the same as those of the preceding night, 
but they were accompanied much more by individual allu- 
sions. 

Sir John Parnell, late Chancellor of the Exchequer, who 
had been dismissed for refusing to support a Union, opened 
the debate. He spoke with great ability; he plainly avowed 
his opinion that it was a revolutionary change of the Consti- 
tution which the Parliament had no power to enact, and $o 



In the Days of Grattan 511 

which the King could not, consistently with his Coronation 
Oath, give the royal assent. 

, Mr. Tighe, of Wicklow, followed and delivered his senti- 
ments against the measure in the same terms, and with equal 
decision. Mr. George Ponsonby arose to move an amend- 
ment negativing the address as far as it alluded to a Union. 

When Mr. George Ponsonby was roused he had great 
debating powers ; on minor subjects he was often vapid, but on 
this occasion he far exceeded himself in argument, elocution, 
and in fortitude. He was sincere; his blood warmed; he 
reasoned with a force, a boldness, and with an absence of all 
reserve which he never before had so energetically exhibited. 
As a lawyer, a statesman, and a loyal Irish subject, he denied 
that either the Lords, or the Commons, or the King of Ire- 
land, had the power of passing or assenting to a legislative 
Union. He avowed his opinion that the measure was revolu- 
tionary, and would run the destructive lengths of endangering 
the compact between the crown and the subjects, and the 
connection of the two nations. 

It is scarcely to be imagined what an effect such a speech, 
from a calm, discreet, and loyal man, a constitutional lawyer, 
and representative of a high aristocratic family, produced in 
that House. It was, in point of extent and powers, unex- 
pected from so calm a character ; and the impression therefore 
was proportionately greater. 

The words, as he spoke them, were imbibed by every man 
who was a free agent in Parliament. In the course of his 
speech he assailed Lord Castlereagh with a strength and 
unreserved severity which greatly exceeded the usual bounds 
of his philippics. 

Cool and deliberate irony, ten times more piercing than 
the sharpest satire, flowed from his lips in a slow, rolling 
flood of indignant denunciation. His calm language never for 
one moment yielded to his warm impressions; and it was 
doubly formidable from being restrained by prudence, and 
dictated by conviction. 

During Mr. Ponsonby 's oration a very impressive scene 
was exhibited on the treasury bench. Lord Castlereagh had 
been anticipated ; he seemed to be astounded ; he moved rest- 
lessly in his seat; he became obviously disconcerted, whis- 
pered to those who sat near him, and appeared more sensitive 
than he had ever been on any public occasion. 



512 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

As Mr. Ponsonby advanced the Secretary became more 
affected; occasionally he rose to interrupt; and when Mr. 
Ponsonby ceased he appeared to be struggling with violent 
emotions; but he was unable to suppress the poignancy of 
his feelings, and he writhed under the castigation. His face 
flushed ; his eyes kindled ; and, for the first time in that House, 
he appeared to be rising into a high state of agitation. Mr. 
Ponsonby, who stood directly before him, formed an ad- 
mirable contrast; not a feature moved; not a muscle was 
disturbed; his small grey eyes, riveted upon his adversary, 
expressed contempt and superiority more eloquently than lan- 
guage; and with these cool and scornful glances, which are 
altogether indescribable, Mr. Ponsonby, unperturbed, listened 
to a reply which raised Lord Castlereagh in the estimation 
of his adherents. 

He had that morning decided on a course which the expe- 
rience of the former evening had induced him to think might 
affect the debate in favor of the Government. He had re- 
solved to act on the offensive, and, by an extravagant invective 
against the principles of the Anti-Unionists, to blind and 
detach some of the dullest of the country gentlemen from 
a party which he intended to represent as an anarchial fac- 
tion ; and by holding up to his supporters an exemplary con- 
tempt for all public opinion, diminish the effect of patriotic 
declamation, from the powerful effect of which the opponents 
of a Union acquired so much strength and importance. On 
these grounds he had decided to act boldly himself, and to 
encourage and excite a simultaneous attack upon the prin- 
ciples and conduct of the leading members who opposed him. 

For this species of conflict the youthful Minister was 
admirably adapted. He had sufficient firmness to advance, 
and sufficient pertinacity to persist in any assertion. Never 
had he more occasion to exert all his powers ; nor did he fail 
in his efforts. He had no qualms or compunction to arrest his 
progress. In his reply there was no assertion he did not risk, 
no circumstance he did not vouch for, no aspersion he did 
not cast, and he even went lengths which he afterwards re- 
pented. To the bar he applied the term ''pettifoggers"; to 
the opposition, ''cabal— combinators— desperate faction"; 
and to the nation itself, "barbarism— ignorance," and "in- 
sensibility to protection and paternal regards she had ever 
experienced from the British nation. ' ' His speech was severe 



In the Days of Grattan 518 

beyond anything he had ever uttered within the walls of Par- 
liament, and far exceeded the powers he was supposed to 
possess. He raked up every act of Mr. Ponsonby's political 
career, and handled it with a masterly severity; but it was 
in the tone and in the manner of an angry gentleman. He had 
flown at the highest game, and his opponent (never off his 
guard) attended to his Lordship with a contemptuous and 
imperturbable placidity which frequently gave Mr. Ponsonby 
a great advantage over warmer debaters. On this occasion 
he seemed not at all to feel the language of Lord Castlereagh ; 
he knew that he had provoked it, and he saw that he had 
spoken effectually by the irritation of his opponent. 

Lord Castlereagh was greatly exhausted, and Mr. Pon- 
sonby, turning round, audibly observed, with a frigid smile, 
and an air of utter indifference— *' the ravings of an irritated 
youth— it was natural." 

This was one of the most important personal conflicts dur- 
ing the discussions of the Union, and it had a very powerful 
effect, at least, on the spirit of his Lordship's followers. 
Truth was unimportant to him ; on personal attacks, his mis- 
representation might honorably be retracted at convenient 
opportunities. , He had no public character to forfeit; and a 
majority of his supporters were similarly circumstanced. 
Prompt personal hostility, therefore, was the line he had that 
morning decided on; and it was the most politic step a min^ 
ister so desperately circumstanced could adopt. When vicious 
measures are irrevocably adopted, obtrusive compunction 
must instantly be banished. He determined to reject every 
consideration but that of increasing his majority; but he was 
routed by the very course he had calculated on to ensure a 
victory. The foresight of Mr. Ponsonby had penetrated 
through his policy, and showed him that, to counteract the 
enemy, he should become the assailant, seize the very position 
his adversary had selected and anticipate the very line on 
which he had determined to try the battle. This line Mr, 
Ponsonby had acted upon, and in this he had succeeded. 

The discussion proceeded with extraordinary asperity; 
but the influence of the Speaker, with a few exceptions, pre- 
served the members in tolerable order; it was often difficult 
to determine which side transgressed the most. Mr. Arthur 
Moore on this night took a decided part; and Mr. Egan 
trampled down the metaphorical sophistries of Mr, William 



514 Ireland's Crown of Thorns aNd Roses 

Smitli as to the competence of Parliament ; such reasoning he 
called rubbish, and such reasoners were scavengers; like a 
dray horse he galloped over all his opponents, plunging and 
kicking, and overthrowing all before him. No member on that 
night pronounced a more sincere, clumsy, powerful oration 
—of matter he had abundance— of language he made no selec- 
tion; and he was aptly compared to the Trojan horse, sound- 
ing as if he had armed men within him. 

Never was there a more unfortunate quotation for the 
Government than one made by Mr. Serjeant Stanly from 
Judge Blackstone. 

The dictum of a puisne Judge, in a British court of law, 
was cited to influence the opinion of 300 members in the Irish 
Parliament on the subject of their own annihilation. 

The debate continued with undiminished animation and 
hostility until ten o'clock on the morning of the 24th, when 
Sir Laurence Parsons (Lord Eosse) supported Mr. Ponsonby 
in a speech luminous, and in some parts almost sublime. He 
had caught the flame which his colleague had but kindled, 
and blazed with eloquence of which he had shown but few 
examples. The impression was powerful. 

Mr. Frederick Falkiner, member for Dublin County, who 
immediately followed, was one of the most remarkable in- 
stances of inflexible public integrity in Ireland ; he would have 
been a valuable acquisition to the Government, but nothing 
could corrupt him. Week after week he was ineffectually 
tempted, through his friends, by a peerage or aught he might 
desire ; he replied, ' ' I am poor, 'tis true ; but no human power, 
no reward, no torture, no elevation, shall ever tempt me to 
betray my country; never mention to me again so infamous 
a proposal." He was, however, afterwards treated ungrate- 
fully by the very constituents whom he had obeyed, and died 
a victim to poverty and patriotism. 

Mr. James Fitzgerald had been dismissed from the office 
of Prime Serjeant, the highest at the bar, for refusing to 
relinquish his independence. He scorned to retain it under 
circumstances of dishonor, and on this night spoke at great 
length and with a train of reasoning which must have been 
decisive in an uneorrupted assembly; he refused every offer, 
and never returned to any office. 

Colonel Maxwell (Lord Farnham), Mr. Lee (Waterford), 
Mr. Barrington, Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, an^ 



In the Days of Grattan 515 

many others pressed forward to deliver their sentiments 
against so fatal a project. Every moment the debate grew 
warmer, and the determination to oppose it became more 
obvious, the members of Government were staggered, the 
storm increased, but Lord Castlereagh was calm ; he rose and 
spoke with a confident assurance peculiar to himself, and par- 
ticularly disavowed all corruption, though he had dismissed 
every man who would not promise to support him, and had 
nearly seventy subservient placemen at that moment at his 
side. 

At length Mr. Plunket arose and, in the ablest speech ever 
heard by any member in that Parliament, went at once to the 
grand and decisive point, the incompetence of Parliament; 
he could go no further on principle than Mr. Ponsonby, but 
his language was irresistible, and he left nothing to be urged. 
It was perfect in eloquence, and unanswerable in reasoning. 
Its effect was indescribable; and, for the first time, Lord 
Castlereagh, whom he personally assailed, seemed to shrink 
from the encounter. That speech was of great weight, and it 
proved the eloquence, the sincerity, and the fortitude of the 
speaker. 

But a short speech on that night, which gave a new sensa- 
tion and excited novel observations, was a maiden speech by 
Colonel 'Donnell of Mayo County, the eldest son of Sir Neil 
O'Donnell, a man of very large fortune in that county; he 
was colonel of the Mayo regiment. He was a brave officer, and 
a well-bred gentleman; and in all the situations of life he 
showed excellent qualities. On this night, roused by Lord 
Castlereagh 's invectives, he could not contain his indignation ; 
and by anticipation ''disclaimed all future allegiance, if a 
Union were effected; he held it as a vicious revolution, and 
avowed that he would take the field at the head of his regi- 
ment to oppose its execution, and would resist rebels in rich 
clothes as he had done the rebels in rags." And for his 
speech in Parliament he was dismissed from his regiment 
without further notice. 

As a contrast to the language of Colonel O'Donnell, it 
is curious to observe the new exhibition of Mr. Trench, of 
Woodlawn. He was not satisfied with the disgusting exhibi- 
tion of the preceding night, but again introduced himself to a 
notice which common modesty would have avoided. He now 
entered into a defence of his former tergiversation, and, most 



516 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

unfortunate for himself, contradicted distinctly the substance 
of both his former speeches. He thus solved all the doubts 
which might have arisen as to his former conduct, closed the 
mouth of every friend from any possibility of defending him, 
and delivered himself, without reserve, into the hands of his 
seducers. He said ' ' he had, since the night before, been fully 
convinced of the advantages of a Union, and would certainly 
support it." The Irish Peerage was soon honored by his 
addition, as Lord Ashtown. 

After the most stormy debate remembered in the Irish 
Parliament the question was loudly called for by the Oppo- 
sition, who were now tolerably secure of a majority; never 
did so much solicitude appear in any public assembly; at 
length above sixty members had spoken, the subject was ex- 
hausted, and all parties seemed impatient. The House di- 
vided, and the Opposition withdrew to the Court of Eequests. 
It is not easy to conceive, still less to describe, the anxiety of 
that moment ; a considerable delay took place. Mr. Ponsonby 
and Sir Laurence Parsons were at length named tellers for 
the amendment; Mr. W. Smith and Lord Tyrone for the 
address. One hundred and eleven members had declared 
against the Union, and when the doors were opened one hun- 
dred and five were discovered to be the total number of the 
Minister 's adherents. The gratification of the Anti-Unionists 
was unbounded; and as they walked deliberately in, one by 
one, to be counted, the eager expectators, ladies as well as 
gentlemen, leaning over the galleries, ignorant of the result, 
were panting with expectation. Lady Castlereagh, then one 
of the finest women of the Court, appeared in the sergeant's 
box, palpitating for her husband's fate. The desponding ap- 
pearance and fallen crests of the Ministerial benches, and the 
exulting air of the opposition members as they entered, were 
intelligible. The murmurs of suppressed anxiety would have 
excited an interest even in the most unconnected stranger who 
had known the objects and importance of the contest. How 
much more, therefore, must every Irish breast which panted 
in the galleries have experienced that thrilling enthusiasm 
which accompanies the achievement of patriotic actions, when 
the Minister's defeat was announced from the chair! A due 
sense of respect and decorum restrained the galleries within 
proper bounds ; but a low cry of satisfaction from the female 
audience could not be prevented, and no sooner was the event 



In the Days of Grattan 517 

made known out of doors than the crowds that had waited 
during the entire night, with increasing impatience for the 
vote which was to decide upon the independence of their 
country, sent forth loud and reiterated shouts of exultation 
which, resounding through the corridors and penetrating to 
the body of the House, added to the triumph of the con- 
querors, and to the misery of the adherents of the conquered 
Minister. 

The members assembled in the lobby were preparing to 
separate when Mr. Ponsonby requested they would return into 
the House and continue a very few minutes, as he had business 
of the utmost importance for their consideration; this pro- 
duced a profound silence ; Mr. Ponsonby then, in a few words, 
^ ' congratulated the House and the country on the honest and 
patriotic assertion of their liberties ; but declared that he con- 
sidered there would be no security against future attempts to 
overthrow their independence, but by a direct and absolute 
declaration of the rights of Irishmen, recorded upon their 
journals as the decided sense of the people, through their 
Parliament; and he, therefore, without further preface, 
moved "That this House will ever maintain the undoubted 
birthright of Irishmen, by preserving an independent Parlia- 
ment of Lords and Commons resident in this Kingdom, as 
stated and approved by his Majesty and the British Parlia- 
ment in 1782.'* 

Lord Castlereagh, conceiving that further resistance was 
unavailing, only said ' ' that he considered such a motion of the 
most dangerous tendency ; however, if the House were deter- 
mined on it, he begged to declare his entire dissent, and on 
their own heads be the consequences of so wrong and incon- 
siderate a measure." No further opposition was made by 
the Government, and the Speaker putting the question, a loud 
cry of approbation followed, with but two negatives, those 
of Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Toler (Lord Norbury) ; the 
motion was carried, and the members were rising to withdraw 
when the Speaker, wishing to be strictly correct, called to Mr. 
Ponsonby to write down his motion accurately; he, accord- 
ingly, walked to the table to write it down. This delay of a 
few moments, unimportant as it might seem in the common 
course of human occurrences, was an incident which ulti- 
mately deranged the constitution of an empire and annihilated 
the legislature of an independent nation; a single moment, 



518 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the most critical that ever occurred in history ; and of all the 
events of Ireland, the most fatal and irretrievable. 

This may teach posterity that the destinies of nations are 
governed by the same chances, subject to the same fatalities, 
and affected by the same misfortunes as those of the humblest 
individual. 

Whilst Mr. Ponsonby was writing his motion, every mem- 
ber, in profound silence, was observing the sensations of the 
opposite party, and conjecturing the feelings and anticipating 
the conduct of their adversaries. 

This motion involved, in one sentence, everything which 
was sought after by the one party and dreaded by the other ; 
its adoption must have ruined the Minister and dismissed the 
Irish Government. The Treasury Bench held a mournful 
silence, the Attorney General, Mr. Toler, alone appeared to 
bear his impending misfortune with a portion of that ease 
and playfulness which never forsook him. 

On Mr. Ponsonby 's handing up his motion, he stood firm 
and collected and looked around him with the honest con- 
fidence of a man who had performed his duty and saved his 
country; the silence of death prevailed in the galleries, and 
the whole assembly displayed a spectacle as solemn and im- 
portant as any country or any era had ever exhibited. 

The Speaker repeated the question— ''the ayes'' burst 
forth into a loud peal, the gallery was in immediate motion, all 
was congratulation. On the question being put the second 
time (as was usual), a still louder and more reiterated cry 
of ''aye, aye," resounded from every quarter; only the same 
two negatives were heard, feebly, from the ministerial side; 
Government had given up the contest, and the independence 
of Ireland was on the very verge of permanent security, when 
Mr. William Charles Fortescue, member for Louth County, 
requested to be heard before the final decision was announced. 

He said "that he was adverse to the measure of a legisla- 
tive Union, and had given his decided vote against it, but he 
did not wish to bind himself forever ; possible circumstances 
might hereafter occur which might tender that measure ex- 
pedient for the empire, and he did not approve of any determi- 
nation which forever closed the doors against any possibility 
of future discussion." 

The opposition were paralyzed, the Government were 
roused, a single sentence plausibly conceived, and (without 



In the Days of Grattan 519 

reflecting on its destructive consequence) moderately uttered, 
by a respectable man and an avowed Anti-Unionist, eventually 
decided the fate of the Irish nation. It offered a pretext for 
timidity, a precedent for caution, and a subterfuge for waver- 
ing venality. 

Mr. French, of Roscommon, a country gentleman of high 
character, and Lord Cole, a young nobleman of an honest, 
inconsiderate mind who had, on the last division, voted sin- 
cerely against the Minister, now, without a moment's reflec- 
tion on the ruin which must necessarily attend, every diversity 
of sentiment in a party associated by only one tie, and bound 
together only upon one subject, declared themselves of Mr. 
Fortescue's opinion. Mr. John Cladius Beresford, who had 
only been restrained from adhesion to the Clare connection 
by being representative of the metropolis, avowed himself of 
the same determination ; and thus that constitutional security 
which a direct and peremptory declaration of indefeasible 
rights, one moment before, was on the point of permanently 
establishing was, by the inconsiderate and temporizing words 
of one feeble-minded member, lost forever. It is impossible to 
express the surprise and disappointment of the Anti-Union- 
ists. 

To be defeated by the effort of an enemy was to be borne, 
but to fall by the secession of a friend was insupportable. 
The narrow jealousies and unconnected materials of the Anti- 
Unionists were no longer to be concealed, either from friends 
or enemies. Mr. Ponsonby felt the critical situation of the 
country, the opposition had but a majority of five on the first 
division; three seceders would have given a majority for 
Government, and a division could not be risked. 

Mr. Ponsonby 's presence of mind instantly suggested the 
only remaining alternative. He lamented "that the smallest 
contrariety of opinion should have arisen amongst men who 
ought to be united by the most powerful of all inducements, 
ithe salvation of their independence. He perceived, however, 
a wish that he should not press the motion, founded, he sup- 
posed, on a mistaken confidence in the engagements of the 
Noble Lord (Castlereagh), that he would not again bring 
forward that ruinous measure without the decided approba- 
tion of the people, and of the Parliament. Though he must 
doubt the sincerity of the Minister's engagements, he could 
not hesitate to acquiesce in the wishes of his friends, and he 
would therefore withdraw his motion. ' ' 



520 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

The sudden transition from exultation to despondency- 
became instantly apparent by the dead silence which followed 
Mr. Ponsonby's declaration; the change was so rapid and so 
unexpected that from the galleries, which a moment before 
were full of congratulation and of pleasure, not a single word 
was heard. Crestfallen and humbled, many instantly with- 
drew from the scene, and though the people without knew of 
nothing but their victory, the retreat was a subject of the most 
serious solicitude to every friend of Irish independence. 

Such an advantage could not escape the anxious eye of 
Government ; chagrin and disappointment had changed sides, 
and the friends of the Union who a moment before had con- 
sidered their measure as nearly extinguished rose upon their 
success, retorted in their turn, and opposed its being with- 
drawn. It was, however, too tender a ground for either party 
to insist upon a division ; a debate was equally to be avoided, 
and the motion was suffered to be withdrawn. Sir Henry 
Cavendish keenly and sarcastically remarked that ''it was a 
retreat after a victory." After a day's and a night's debate, 
without intermission, the House adjourned at eleven o'clock 
the ensuing morning. 

Upon the rising of the House, the populace became 
tumultuous and a violent disposition against those who had 
supported the Union was manifest, not only amongst the 
common people, but amongst those of a much higher class, 
who had been mingling with them. 

On the Speaker's coming out of the House, the horses 
were taken from his carriage and he was drawn in triumph 
through the streets by the people, who conceived the whimsical 
idea of tackling the Lord Chancellor to the coach and (as a 
captive general in a Eoman triumph) forcing him to tug at 
the chariot of his conqueror. 

Had it been effected, it would have been a signal anecdote, 
and would, at least, have immortalized the classic genius of 
the Irish. 

The populace closely pursued his Lordship for that ex- 
traordinary purpose; he escaped with great difficulty and 
fled, with pistol in hand, to a receding doorway in Clarendon 
street. But the people, who pursued him in sport, set up a 
loud laugh at him as he stood terrified against the door ; they 
offered him no personal violence, and returned in high glee 
to their own innocent amusement of drawing the Speaker. 



In the Days of Grattan 52 1 

A scene of joy and rriumph appeared universal, every 
countenance had a smile, throughout all ranks and classes of 
the people men shook their neighbors heartily by the hand, 
as if the Minister's defeat was an event of individual good 
fortune. The mob seemed as well disposed to joy as mis- 
chief, and that was saying much for a Dublin assemblage. 
But a view of their enemies, as they came skulking from 
behind the corridors, occasionally roused them to no very 
tranquil temperature. Some members had to try their speed, 
and others their intrepidity. Mr. Richard Martin, unable to 
get clear, turned on his hunters and boldly faced a mob of 
many thousands, with a small pocket pistol in his hand. He 
swore most vehemently that, if they advanced six inches on 
him, he would shoot ''every mother's babe of them as dead as 
that paving stone" (kicking one). The united spirit and fun 
of his declaration, and his little pocket pistol aimed at ten 
thousand men, women and children, were so entirely to the 
taste of our Irish populace that all symptoms of hostility 
ceased ; they gave him three cheers, and he regained his home 
without further molestation. 

Mr. O'Driscol, a gentleman of the Irish Bar, one of the 
most sincere and active Anti-Unionists, used great and suc- 
cessful efforts to tranquilize the people; and to his persua- 
sions was chiefly attributed their peaceable dispersion. In 
one particular instance, he certainly prevented a most 
atrocious mischief, if not a great crime, by his prompt and 
spirited interference. 

The House of Lords met on the 22nd of January, 1799, 
the same day as the Commons, to receive the speech of the 
Viceroy. Though the nation was not unprepared for any 
instance of its subserviency, some patriotic spirits might 
reasonably have been expected on so momentous a subject 
as the Union. In this expectation, however, it was but feebly 
gratified. 

Never did a body of hereditary nobles, many of ancient 
family, and several of splendid fortune, so disgrace their 
ancestry. 

After an ineffectual resistance by some, whose integrity 
Was invincible, the Irish Lords recorded their own humilia- 
tion, and, in a state of absolute infatuation, perpetrated the 
most extraordinary act of legislative suicide which ever 
stained the records of a nation. 



522 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

The reply of the Irish Lords to the speech of the British 
Viceroy coincided in his recommendation and virtually con- 
sented to prostrate themselves and their posterity forever. 
The prerogatives of rank, the pride of ancestry, the glory of 
the peerage, and the rights of the country were equally 
sacrificed. 

The facility with which the Irish Lords re-echoed their 
sentence of extinction was quite unexampled. 

That stultified facility can only be elucidated by taking a 
brief statistical view of what was once considered an august 
assembly, but which the overbearing influence of the absolute 
and vindictive Chancellor had for some years reduced to a 
mere instrument of his ambition. 

In the hands of the Chancellor, Lord Clare, the House was 
powerless; it was his mere automaton or puppet, which he 
coerced or humored according to his ambition or caprice. 

There were, however, amongst the Irish nobility a few 
men of spirit, pride, talent, and integrity ; but they were too 
few for resistance. 

The education of the Irish noblemen of that day was little 
calculated for debate or Parliamentary duties ; they very sel- 
dom took any active part in Parliamentary discussions, and 
more rarely attained to that confidence in public speaking 
without which no effect can be produced. They could argue, 
or might declaim, but were unequal to what is termed debate ; 
and being confirmed in their torpidity by an habitual absti- 
nence from Parliamentary discussions, when the day of dan- 
ger came they were unequal to the contest. 

The Bishop of Down was a prelate of the most faultless 
character ; the extreme beauty of his countenance, the gentle- 
ness of his manners, and the patriarchal dignity of his figure 
rendered him one of the most interesting persons in society. 

His talents were considerable, but they were neutralized 
by his modesty; and he seldom could be prevailed upon to 
rise in the House of Peers upon political subjects. On this 
night, however, stung to the quick by the invectives, and in- 
dignant at the designs of the Chancellor, he made a reply to 
him of which he was supposed incapable. Severity from the 
Bishop of Down was likewise so unusual that the few sen- 
tences he pronounced stunned the champion more than all the 
speeches of his more disciplined opponents. 

Nothing, however, could overcome the influence of Lord 
Clare. The Irish Lords lay prostrate before the Government, 



In the Days of Grattan 523 

but the leaders were not inattentive to their own interests. 
The defeat of the Government in the Commons gave them an 
importance they had not expected. 

The debates and conduct of the Irish peers bear a com- 
paratively unimportant share in the transactions of that 
epoch, and have but little interest in the memoirs of those 
times; but the accounts of Lord Annesley, etc., record their 
corruption. 

It is not the object, therefore, of these anecdotes to dilate 
more upon the proceedings of that degraded assembly than 
incidentally to introduce, as epistles, their individual actions, 
and to state that a great proportion of the million and a half 
levied upon Ireland, and distributed by Lord Castlereagh's 
Commissioners of Compensation, went into the pockets of the 
Lords Spiritual and Temporal of Ireland. 

From the hour that Mr. Ponsonby's motion was with- 
drawn. Government gained strength, the standard of vision- 
ary honors and of corrupt emoluments was raised for recruits, 
a congratulatory, instead of a consolatory dispatch, had been 
instantly forwarded to Mr. Pitt, and another to the Duke 
of Portland ; and it was not difficult to foresee that the result 
of that night, though apparently a victory over the proposi- 
tion for a Union, afforded so strong a point for the Minister 
in the subsequent negotiations, by which he had determined 
to achieve his measure. The arguments and divisions on 
succeeding debates proved, beyond the possibility of question, 
the overwhelming advantage which Mr. Fortescue's precedent 
had given to those who were determined to dispose of their 
consistency under color of their moderation. 

The bad consequences which were likely to result from 
this event did not at first occur to any of the Opposition. 
Some of the leading members of that party, highly elated at 
the success of the last division, could see nothing but the pros- 
pect of an increasing majority and an ultimate triumph ; these 
were numerous but short-sighted. Others regarded, with a 
wise solicitude, the palpable want of political connection in 
the party that opposed the Minister. However, Lord Castle- 
reagh who had so confidently pressed forward a measure 
which Parliament had decidedly rejected, and the public uni- 
versally reprobated, found his situation the most difficult 
imaginable. He had no just reason to expect support in minor 
measures, who had proved himself utterly unworthy of the 



524 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

confidence of Parliament on one of the first magnitude. His 
pride was humbled, but his firmness and perseverance over- 
came his difficulties, and the next important division on Lord 
Curry's motion clearly proved the consummate address with 
which he had trafficked with the members during the interval. 
All the weapons of seduction were in his hands; and, to 
acquire a majority, he had only to overcome the wavering and 
feeble. A motion of Lord Curry's, made a few days after- 
wards in order to prevent any future scheme of a Union, after 
a long debate was also negatived (by a majority of fifty-eight), 
and thus concluded all discussion on the Union for that ses- 
sion. The session, however, had scarcely closed when his 
Lordship recommended his warfare against the country. The 
treasury was in his hands, patronage in his note book, and 
all the influence which the scourge or the pardon, reward 
or punishment could possibly produce on the trembling 
rebels was openly resorted to. Lord Cornwallis determined 
to put Irish honesty to the test, and set out upon an experi- 
mental tour through those parts of the country where the 
nobility and gentry were likely to entertain him. He artfully 
selected those places where he could best make his way with 
corporations at public dinners, and with the aristocracy, coun- 
try gentlemen, and farmers, by visiting their mansions and 
cottages. Ireland was thus canvassed and every gaol was 
converted to a hustings. 

In reflecting, therefore, on the extraordinary fate of Mr. 
Ponsonby's declaratory motion just and not inconsiderate 
alarm must have been excited in the mind of every man who 
had determined boldly and unequivocally to support the 
freedom of his country. 

It was now difficult to perceive that, to the cool and reason- 
ing part of the nation, melancholy forebodings must naturally 
arise from the decided absence of that cordial, unqualified co- 
operation amongst the members of the opposition, by whose 
undeviating unanimity alone the revival of the project and 
the probable ruin of the country could be resisted. 

It was evident that by the thoughtless conduct of Mr. 
Fortescue, Lord Cole, and Mr. French, the conclusive rejec- 
tion of the proposal was prevented. Had they been even one 
moment silent, Ireland would have been a proud, prosperous, 
free, tranquil, and productive member of the British Empire* 
But their puerile inconsistency lost their country, gave a clue 



In the Days of Grattan 525 

to the Secretary and the Government before plunged in a 
hopeless perplexity, and opened a wide door for future dis- 
cussion which Mr. Ponsonby's motion would have forever 
prevented. 

In a body composed as the Parliament of Ireland, though 
this misfortune must ever be deplored and those gentlemen 
forever censured, yet such an event was not a subject for 
astonishment. A great number of those who composed the 
House were most inexperienced statesmen; they meddled but 
little individually in any arrangement of debates, and voted 
according to their party or their sentiments, without the habit 
of any previous consultation. 

Such men, therefore, after the last division against the 
Minister, could not suppose he would again revive the ques- 
tion, and they partook of the general satisfaction. Modera- 
tion was now recommended as the proper course for a loyal 
opposition, and the proposal for a Union having been virtually 
negatived, it was observed by the courtly oppositionists to be 
at least unkind, if not indiscreet, to push Government further 
at a '^moment like this." 

On the other hand, those who wished to complete the vic- 
tory could not shut their eyes to the hazard of moderate 
proceedings, and their zeal led them to wish to improve their 
advantage, and, if possible, to remove Lord Cornwallis from 
the Government, as a finishing stroke to the measure. But 
the conduct of Mr. Fortescue and his supporters had miser- 
ably deceived them, and had convinced the leaders of the 
Opposition that they were about to tread very uncertain 
ground, and that their first consideration should be, how far 
the possibility of attaining their ultimate object should be 
weighed against the probable event of losing their majority 
by another trial of strength. 

Eeasoning people without doors saw the danger still more 
clearly than those who had individually to encounter it. Re- 
gardless of the solemn engagements he had made in the House, 
and by which he had imposed on many of the opposition, the 
Minister and his agents lost no opportunity, nor omitted any 
means, of making good their party amongst the members who 
had not publicly declared themselves, and of endeavoring to 
pervert the principles and corrupt the consistency of those 
who had. Lord Castlereagh's ulterior efforts were extensive 
and indefatigable; his spirit revived and every hour gained 



626 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ground on his opponents. He clearly perceived that the ranks 
of the Opposition were too open to be strong, and too mixed 
to be unanimons. The extraordinary fate of Mr. Ponsonby's 
declaration of rights, and the debate on a similar motion by 
Lord Gorry, which so shortly afterwards met a more serious 
negative, proved the truth of these observations and identified 
the persons through whom that truth was to be afterwards 
exemplified. 

The disheartening effects of Mr. Fortescue's conduct (not- 
withstanding the general exultation of the country) appeared 
to make a very powerful impression on the public mind; it 
was assiduously circulated by Government as a triumph, and 
on all occasions reluctantly alluded to by the Anti-Unionists ; 
it became apparent that the increasing majority against the 
Minister, on the second division, if unaccompanied by that 
fatal circumstance, would have effectually established the 
progressive power of the Opposition, and rapidly hastened the 
upset of Government. But the advantage of that majority 
was lost, and the possibility of exciting division amongst the 
Anti-Unionists could no longer be questioned. This consid- 
eration had an immediate and extensive effect; the timid 
recommenced their fears, the wavering began to think of con- 
sequences, the venal to negotiate; and the public mind, par- 
ticularly amongst the Catholics, who still smarted from the 
scourge, became so deeply affected and so timorously doubtful 
that some of the persons, assuming to themselves the title of 
Catholic Leaders, sought an audience in order to inquire from 
Marquis Cornwallis, "What would be the advantage to the 
Catholics if a Union should happen to be effected in Ireland 1 ' ' 

However, great confidence in an ultimate crushing of the 
project kept its place in the Opposition. The Parliament, 
unaccustomed to see the Minister with a majority of only 
one, considered him as totally defeated. A rising party is 
sure to gain proselytes. Government, therefore, lost ground 
as the Opposition gained it; and for a few days it was gen- 
erally supposed that the Viceroy and Secretary must resign. 
Many of their adherents shrunk from them. A large propor- 
tion of Parliament was far beyond the power either of fear 
or corruption, yet the impartial history of these times must 
throw a partial shade over the consistency of Ireland and 
exhibit some of the once leading characters in both Houses 
in a course of the most humiliating, corrupt, and disgusting 



In the Days of GrattaN 



527 



servility; contradicting by tlie last act of their political lives, 
the whole tenor of their former principles, from the first 
moment they had the power of declaring them to the nation. 
In another quarter those who formed an Opposition to the 
Minister on the question of a Union had been, and wished to 
continue, his avowed supporters on every other. The custom 
of the times, the venality of the court, even the excessive 
habits of convivial luxury had combined gradually to blunt 
the poignancy of public spirit, and the activity of patriotic 
exertions, on ordinary subjects. The terrors of the rebellion, 
scarcely yet extinguished, had induced many to cling for pro- 
tection round a government whose principles they had con- 
demned, and whose politics they had resisted. The subtle 
Viceroy knew full well how to make his advantage of the 
moment, and by keeping up the delusion, under the name of 
loyalty and discretion, he restrained within narrow limits the 
spirit of constitutional independence wherever he found he 
could not otherwise subdue it. 




Ornament on leather case of Book of Armagh, 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

IRELAND 'S FIGHT FOR LEGISLATIVE IKDEPENDElSrCH ENDS IN DEFEAT 
— THE UNION IS CARRIED — THE NATION IS EXTINGUISHED. 

It is impossible to comprise in a single volume a tithe of 
tlie means and measures of every description resorted to by 
the Viceroy and Secretary not only to seduce the members, 
but to procure addresses favorable to their views, from every 
or any rank or description of people, from the first rank to 
the very lowest order: beggars, cottagers, tradesmen, every 
individual who could be influenced were tempted to put their 
names or marks to addresses, not one word of which they 
understood the intent, still less the ruinous result of. Even 
public instances were adduced, some mentioned in Parliament, 
and not denied, of felons in the gaols purchasing pardon, or 
transmutation, by signatures or by forging names to Union 
eulogiums. 

English generals who, at a moment when martial law 
existed or a recollection of its execution was still fresh in 
every memory, could not fail to have their own influence over 
proclaimed districts and bleeding peasantry ; of course, their 
success in procuring addresses to Parliament was not limited 
either by their power, their disposition or their instructions. 

The Anti-Union addresses, innumerable and fervid, in 
their very nature voluntary, and the signatures of high con- 
sideration, were stigmatized by the title of seditious and 
disloyal; whilst those of the compelled, the bribed, and the 
culprit were printed and circulated by every means that the 
treasury or the influence of the Government could effect. 

Mr. Darby, High Sheriff of King's County, and Major 
Rogers of the artillery had gone so far as to place two six- 
pounders towards the doors of the Court House, where the 
gentlemen and freeholders of the county were assembling to 
address as Anti-Unionists; and it is not to be wondered at 
that the dread of grape shot not only stopped those, but 
numerous meetings for similar purposes; yet this was one 
of the means taken to prevent the expression of public meet- 
ings without, and formed a proper comparison for the meas- 
ures resorted to within the walls of Parliament. 

529 



530 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

As this volume cannot detail the innumerable circum- 
stances and episodes which a perfect history of those times 
would embody, it may be enough to say that if the British 
readers of this work will imagine any act that an indefatig- 
able, and, on this subject, the most corrupt of Governments 
could by possibility resort to, to carry a measure they had 
determined on, such readers cannot imagine acts more illegal, 
unconstitutional, and corrupt than those of the Viceroy of 
Ireland, his secretary and under-secretary employed from the 
close of the session of 1799 to that of 1800 ; in the last of the 
Irish Parliament everything, therefore, is passed over, or 
but slightly touched on, till the opening of the last session. 

Lords Cornwallis and Castlereagh, having made good 
progress during the recess, now discarded all secrecy and 
reserve. To recite the various acts of simple metallic cor- 
ruption which were practised without any reserve, during the 
summer of 1799, are too numerous for this volume. It will 
be sufficient to describe the proceedings, without particular- 
izing the individuals. Many of the Peers and several of 
the Commoners had the patronage of boroughs, the control 
of which was essential to the success of the Minister's project. 
These patrons Lord Castlereagh assailed by every means 
which his power and situation afforded. Lord Cornwallis was 
the remote. Lord Castlereagh the intermediate, and Mr. Sec- 
retary Cooke the immediate agents on many of these bar- 
gains. Lord Shannon, the Marquis of Ely, and several other 
Peers commanding votes, after much coquetry, had been se- 
cured during the first session; but the defeat of Government 
rendered their future support uncertain. The Parliamentary 
patrons had breathing time after the preceding session and 
began to tremble for their patronage and importance; and 
some desperate step became necessary to Government to 
insure a continuance of the supporters of these patronages. 
This object gave rise to a measure which the British nation 
will scarcely believe possible, its enormity is without parallel. 

Lord Castlereagh 's first object was to introduce into the 
House, by means of the Place Bill, a sufficient number of 
dependents to balance all opposition. He then boldly an- 
nounced his intention io turn the scale by bribes to all who 
would accept them, under the name of compensation for the 
loss of patronage and interest. He publicly declared, first, 
that every nobleman who returned members to Parliament 



In the Days op Grattan 531 

should be paid, in cash, £15,000, for every member so re- 
turned; secondly, that every member who had purchased a 
seat in Parliament should have his purchase-money repaid to 
him, by the Treasury of Ireland; thirdly, that all members 
of Parliament, or others, who were losers by a Union, should 
be fully recompensed for their losses and that £1,500,000 
should be devoted to this service ; in other terms, all who sup- 
ported his measure were, under some pretense or other, to 
share in this bank of corruption. 

A declaration so flagitious and treasonable was never made 
in any country ; but it had a powerful effect in his favor, and, 
before the meeting of Parliament, he had secured a small 
majority (as heretofore mentioned) of eight above a moiety 
of the members, and he courageously persisted. 

After the debate on the Union, in 1800, he performed his 
promise and brought in a bill to raise one million and a 
half of money upon the Irish people, nominally to compen- 
sate, but really to bribe their representatives for betraying 
their honor and selling their country. This bill was feebly 
resisted; the division of January and February (1800) had 
reduced the success of the Government to a certainty, and all 
further opposition was abandoned. It was unimportant to 
Lord Castlereagh, who received the plunder of the nation; 
the taxes were levied and a vicious partiality was effected in 
the partition. 

The assent to the bill by his Majesty, as King of Ireland, 
gives rise to perhaps the most grave consideration suggested 
in these Memoirs. 

A king, bound by the principles of the British Constitu- 
tion, giving his sacred and voluntary fiat to a bill to levy 
taxes for the compensation of members of Parliament for 
their loss of the opportunities of selling what it was criminal 
to sell or purchase, could scarcely be believed by the British 
people. 

It may be curious to consider how the English would en- 
dure the proposal of such a measure in their own country; a 
British Premier who should advise his Majesty to give his 
assent to such a statute would experience the utmost punish- 
ment that the severest law of England could inflict for that 
enormity. Nor should the Irish people be blamed for refus- 
ing to acquiesce in a measure which was carried in direct 
violation of the law, and infraction of the statutes against 



532 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

bribery and corniption and in defiance of every precept, moral 
and political. 

There were times when Mr. Pitt would have lost his head 
for a tithe of his Government in Ireland; Stafford was an 
angel compared to that celebrated statesman. 

When the compensation statute had received the royal 
assent the Viceroy appointed four commissioners to carry its 
provisions into execution. Three were members of Parlia- 
ment, whose salaries of £1,200 a year each (with probable 
advantages) were a tolerable consideration for their former 
services. The Honorable Mr. Annesley, Secretary Hamilton, 
and Dr. Duigenan were the principal ministers of that ex- 
traordinary distribution. 

It is, however, to be lamented that the records of the pro- 
ceedings have been unaccountably disposed of. A voluminous 
copy of claims, accepted and rejected, was published and par- 
tially circulated ; but the great and important grants, the pri- 
vate pensions and occult compensations have never been made 
public further than by those who received them. It is known 
that 

£ s. d. 
Lord Shannon received for his patronage in the 

Commons 45,000 

The Marquis of Ely 45,000 

The Clanmorris, besides a Peerage 23,000 

Lord Belvidere, besides his douceur 15,000 

Sir Hercules Langrishe 15,000 

At length, the Parliament being sufficiently arranged to 
give Government a reasonable assurance of success. Lord 
Castlereagh determined to feel the impulse of the House of 
Commons distinctly before he proposed the measure of the 
Union. 

The British Parliament had already framed the terms on 
which the proposition was to be founded, giving to its own 
project a complexion of a favor and triumphing by anticipa- 
tion over the independence of Ireland. 

This was a masterpiece of arrogance; and it was deter- 
mined to try the feelings of the Commons by a negative 
measure before the insulting one should be substantially pro- 
pounded to them. The fifteenth day of January, 1800 (the 
last session of the Irish Parliament), gave rise to a debate 
of the most acrimonious nature and of great importance. 



In the Days of Grattan 533 

The speech of Lord Cornwallis from the throne was ex- 
pected to avow candidly the determination of the Minister to 
propose, and if possible to achieve a Legislative Union. Every 
man came prepared to hear that proposal, but a more crafty 
course was taken by the Secretary. 

To the surprise of the Anti-Unionists, the Viceroy's speech 
did not even hint at the measure, the suggestion of Union was 
sedulously avoided. Lord Viscount Loftus (now Marquis of 
Ely) moved the address, which was as vague as the speech 
was empty. Lord Loftus was another of those young noble- 
men who were emitted by their connections to mark their 
politics; but neither the cause nor his Lordship's oration 
conferred any honor on the author ; and his speech would have 
answered any other subject just as well as that upon which 
it was uttered. 

There was not a point in the Viceroy's speech intended 
to be debated. Lord Castlereagh, having judiciously collected 
his flocks, was better enabled to decide on numbers and to 
count with sufficient certainty on the result of his labors since 
the preceding session, without any hasty or premature dis- 
closure of his definite measure. 

This negative and insidious mode of proceeding, however, 
could not be permitted by the opposition; and Sir Laurence 
Parsons, after one of the most able and luminous speeches he 
had ever uttered, moved an amendment, declaratory of the 
resolution of Parliament to preserve the Constitution as 
established in 1782, and to support the freedom and inde- 
pendence of the nation. This motion was the touchstone of 
the parties ; the attendance of the Unionists in the House was 
compulsory, that of its opponents optional; and on counting 
the members, sixty-six (about a fifth of the whole) were 
absent, a most favorable circumstance for the Minister. 
Every mind was at its stretch, every talent was in its vigor; 
it was a momentous trial, and never was so general and so 
deep a sensation felt in any country. Numerous British 
noblemen and commoners were present at that and the suc- 
ceeding debate, and they expressed opinions of Irish eloquence 
which they had never before conceived, nor ever after had an 
opportunity of appreciating. ^ Every man on that night 
seemed to be inspired by the subject. Speeches more replete 
with talent and energy on both sides never were heard in the 
Irish Senate; it was a vital subject. The sublime, the elo- 



534 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

quent, the figurative orator, the plain, the connected, the 
metaphysical reasoner, the classical, the learned, and the sol- 
emn declaimer, in a succession of speeches so full of energy 
and enthusiasm, so interesting in their future, so important 
in their consequence, created a variety of sensations, even in 
the bosom of a stranger, and could scarcely fail of exciting 
some sympathy with a nation which was doomed to close for- 
ever that school of eloquence which had so long given char- 
acter and celebrity to Irish talent. 

The debate proceeded with increasing heat and interest till 
past ten o'clock the ensuing morning (16th). Many members 
on both sides signalized themselves to an extent that never 
could have been expected. The result of the convivial resolu- 
tion at Lord Castlereagh's house was actually exemplified and 
clearly discernible; an unexampled zeal, an uncongenial 
energy, an uncalled-for rancor, and an unusual animation 
broke out from several supporters of Government to an extent 
which none but those who had known the system Lord Castle- 
reagh had skillfully suggested to his followers could in any 
way account for. This excess of ardor gave to this debate not 
only a new and extraordinary variety of language, but an 
acrimony of invective and an absence of all moderation never 
before so immoderately practised. 

This violence was in unison with the pugnacious project 
of anticipating the Anti-Unionists in offensive operations, 
some remarkable instances of that project were actually put 
into practice, and are not unworthy of being recorded in the 
Irish chronicles. 

Mr. Bushe, the late Chief Justice of Ireland, was as nearly 
devoid of private and public enemies as any man. Endowed 
with superior talents, he had met with a corresponding suc- 
cess in an ambitious profession and in a jealous country. 
His eloquence was of the purest kind, but the more delicate 
the edge the deeper cuts the irony, and his rebukes were of 
that description ; and when embellished by his ridicule, coarse 
minds might bear them, but the more sensitive ones could 
not. Mr. Plunket's satire was of a different nature; his 
weapon cut in every direction, and when once unsheathed 
little quarter could be expected. His satire was, at times, of 
that corroding yet witty nature that no patience could endure ; 
yet, on this debate, both these gentlemen were assailed with 
intrepidity by a person whose talents were despised, and the 



In the Days of Grattan 535 

price of whose seduction glared in an appointment to tlie 
highest office at the Irish bar— a barrister without profes- 
sional practice or experience, and who was not considered 
susceptible of black letter. As a statesman he had no capacity, 
and as an orator he was below even mediocrity, from an em- 
barrassed pronunciation which seemed to render an attempt 
at elocution a hopeless experiment. Such was Mr. St. George 
Daly, appointed Prime Sergeant of Ireland in the place of 
Mr. Fitzgerald, raised over the heads of the Attorney and 
Solicitor General, and, from a simple briefless advocate 
elevated to the very highest rank of a talented and learned 
profession. Mr. Daly, however, was a man of excellent fam- 
ily and common sense, and what was formerly highly esteemed 
in Ireland, of a "fighting family." He was the brother of 
Mr. Denis Daly, of so much talent and of so much reputation 
amongst the patriots of eighty-two. He was proud enough 
for his pretensions, and sufficiently conceited f cfe- his capacity ; 
and a private gentleman he would have remained had not 
Lord Castlereagh and the Union placed him in public situa- 
tions where he had himself too much sense not to feel that 
he certainly was over-elevated. This gentleman is particu- 
larly noticed, as, on this night, he, in some points, overcame 
the public opinion of his incapacity, and he surprised the 
House by one of the most clever and severe philippics which 
had been pronounced during the discussions upon the Union, 
more remarkable from being directed against two of the most 
pure and formidable orators in the country. 

The contempt with which Mr. Daly conceived his capacity 
was viewed by the superior members of his profession, the 
inaptitude he himself felt for the ostensible situation he was 
placed in, the cutting sarcasms liberally lavished on his in- 
experience and infirmity, in lampoons and pamphlets, com- 
bined to excite an extraordinary exertion to extricate himself 
from the humiliating taunts that he had been so long expe- 
riencing. Mr. Daly's attack on Mr. Bushe was of a clever 
description, and had Mr. Bushe had one vulnerable point, his 
assailant might have prevailed. He next attacked Mr. 
Plunket, who sat immediately before him ; but the materials 
of his vocabulary had been nearly exhausted; however, he 
was making some progress when the keen visage of Mr. 
Plunket was seen to assume a curled sneer which, like a legion 
offensive and defensive, was prepared for any enemy. No 



536 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

speech could equal his glance of contempt and ridicule. Mr. 
Daly received it like an arrow ; it pierced him, he faltered like 
a wounded man, his vocal infirmity became more manifest, 
and after an embarrassed pause he yielded, changed his 
ground and attacked by wholesale every member of his OAvn 
profession who had opposed a Union, and termed them a dis- 
affected and dangerous faction. Here again he received a 
reply not calculated to please him, and at length he concluded 
one of the most remarkable speeches, because one the most 
unexpected, that had been made during the discussion. Every 
member who had been in the habit of addressing the House, 
new ones who had never spoken, on that night made warm 
and several of them eloquent orations. 

Mr. Peter Burrows, a veteran advocate for the rights of 
Ireland, wherever and whenever he had the power of declaring 
himself, on this night made an able effort to uphold his prin- 
ciples. He was a gentleman of the bar who had many friends, 
and justly; nothing could be more ungracious than the man- 
ner, nothing much better than the matter, of his orations., 
His mind had ever been too independent to cringe, and his 
opinions too intractable for an arbitrary minister; on this 
night he formed a noble and distinguished contrast to those 
of his own profession, who had sold themselves and the rep- 
resentation for a mess of pottage. 

The House had nearly exhausted itself and the subject, 
when about seven o 'clock in the morning an incident the most 
affecting and unexpected occurred, and which is too precious 
a relic of Irish Parliamentary chronicles not to be recorded. 

The animating presence of Mr. Grattan on this first night 
of the debate was considered of the utmost importance to the 
patriots ; it was once more raising the standard of liberty in 
Parliament. He had achieved the independence of his coun- 
try in 1782, and was the champion best calculated at this crisis 
to defend it ; a union of spirit, of talent, and of honesty gave 
him an influence above all his contemporaries. He had been 
ungratefully defamed by the people he had liberated, and, tak- 
ing the calumny to heart, his spirit had sunk within him, his 
health had declined, and he had most unwisely seceded in dis- 
gust from Parliament at the very moment when he was most 
required to defend both himself and his country. He seemed 
fast approaching to the termination of all earthly objects, 
when he was induced once more to shed his influence over the 
political crisis. 



In the Days of Grattan 537 

At that time Mr. Tighe returned the members for the close 
borough of Wicklow, and, a vacancy having occurred, it was 
tendered to Mr. Grattan, who would willingly have declined 
it but for the importunities of his friends. 

The Lord Lieutenant and Lord Castlereagh, justly appre- 
ciating the effect his presence might have on the first debate, 
had withheld the writ of election till the last moment the law 
allowed, and till they conceived it might be too late to return 
Mr. Grattan in time for the discussion. It was not until the 
day of the meeting of Parliament that the writ was delivered 
to the returning officer. By extraordinary exertions, and per- 
haps by following the example of government in overstrain- 
ing the law, the election was held immediately on the arrival 
of the writ; a sufficient number of voters were collected to 
return Mr. Grattan before midnight. By one o'clock the re- 
turn was on its road to Dublin ; it arrived by five ; a party of 
Mr. Grattan 's friends repaired to the private house of the 
proper officer, and making him get out of bed, compelled him 
to present the writ to Parliament before seven in the morn- 
ing, when the House was in warm debate on the Union. A 
whisper ran through every party that Mr. Grattan was elect- 
ed and would immediately take his seat. The Ministerialists 
smiled with incredulous derision, and the opposition thought 
the news too good to be true. 

Mr. Egan was speaking strongly against the measure when 
Mr. George Ponsonby and Mr. Arthur Moore walked out, and 
immediately returned, leading, or rather helping, Mr. Grat- 
tan, in a state of total feebleness and debility. The effect 
was electric. Mr. Grattan 's illness and a deep chagrin had 
reduced a form, never symmetrical, and a visage at all times 
thin, nearly to the appearance of a spectre. As he feebly 
tottered into the House every member simultaneously rose 
from his seat. He moved slowly to the table; his languid 
countenance seemed to revive as he took those oaths that re- 
stored him to his pre-eminent station; the smile of inward 
satisfaction obviously illuminated his features, and reanima- 
tion and energy seemed to kindle by the labor of his mind. 
The House was silent ; Mr. Egan did not resume his speech ; 
Mr. Grattan, almost breathless, as if by instinct, attempted 
to rise, but was unable to stand; he paused and with diffi- 
culty requested permission of the House to deliver his senti- 
ments without moving from his seat. This was acceded to 



538 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

by acclamation, and he wlio had left his bed of sickness to 
record, as he thought, his last words in the Parliament of 
his country kindled gradually till his language glowed with 
an energy and feeling which he had seldom surpassed. Af- 
ter nearly two hours of the most powerful eloquence he con- 
cluded with an undiminished vigor, miraculous to those who 
were unacquainted with his intellect. 

Never did a speech make more affecting impression, but 
it came too late. Fate had decreed the fall of Ireland, and 
her patriot came only to witness her overthrow. For two 
hours he recapitulated all the pledges that England had made 
and had broken ; he went through the great events from 1780 
to 1800, proved the more than treachery which had been prac- 
tised towards the Irish people. He had concluded, and the 
question was loudly called for, when Lord Castlereagh was 
perceived earnestly to whisper to Mr. Corry; they for an in- 
stant looked round the House, whispered again; Mr. Corry 
nodded assent, and, amidst the cries of question, he began 
a speech, which, as far as it regarded Mr. Grattan, few per- 
sons in the House could have prevailed upon themselves to 
utter. Lord Castlereagh was not clear what impression Mr. 
Grattan's speech might have made upon a few hesitating 
members ; he had, in the course of the debate, moved the ques- 
tion of adjournment; he did not like to meet Sir Lawrence 
Parsons on his motion, and Mr. Corry commenced certainly 
an able, but, towards Mr. Grattan, an ungenerous and an un- 
feeling personal assault ; it was useless, it was like an act of 
a cruel disposition, and he knew it could not be replied to. 
At length the impatience of the House rendered a division 
necessary, and in half an hour the fate of Ireland was de- 
cided. The numbers were: 

For an adjournment Lord Castlereagh had. .138 
For the amendment 96 

Majority 42 

This decision, undoubtedly, gave a death blow to the Irish 
nation. Many, however, still fostered the hope of success 
in the opposition, and Lord Castlereagh did not one moment 
relax his efforts to bribe, to seduce, and to terrify his oppo- 
nents. 

The Anti-Unionists also lost no opportunity of improving 
their minority, and the next division proved that they had 



In the Days of Grattan 539 

not. The adjournment was on tHe 5tli of February; the 
Union propositions, as passed by the British Parliament, 
were, after a long speech, laid before the House of Commons 
by Lord Castlereagh. On that day Mr. Bagwell, of Tippe- 
rary County, seceded from the Government; the Marquis of 
Ormonde had also divided it, and the minority appeared to 
have received numerous acquisitions. Mr. Saurin, Mr. Peter 
Burns and other prominent gentlemen of the bar now ap- 
peared to make the last effort to rescue their country. 

Lord Castlereagh, upheld by his last majority, now kept 
no bounds in his assertions and in his arrogance, and after 
a debate of the entire night, at eleven the ensuing morning, 
the division took place. It appeared that the Anti-Unionists 
had gained ground since the former session, and that there 
existed 115 members of the Irish Parliament whom neither 
promotion, nor office, nor fear, nor reward, nor ambition could 
procure to vote against the independence of their country; 
though nations fall, that opposition will remain immortal. 

Lord Castlereagh 's motion was artful in the extreme; he 
did not move expressly for any adoption of the propositions, 
but that they should be printed and circulated, with a view 
to their ultimate adoption. 

This was opposed as a virtual acceptation of the subject ; 
on this point the issue was joined, and the Irish nation was 
on that night laid prostrate. The division was: 

Number of members 300 

For Lord Castlereagh 's motion 158 

Against it 115 

Of members present, majority 43 

Absent 27 

By this division it appears that the Government had a 
majority of the House of only eight; by their utmost efforts 
27 were absent, of whom every man refused to vote for a 
Union, but did not vote at all, being kept away by different 
causes, and of consequence eight above a moiety carried the 
Union, and of the 158 who voted for it in 1800, 28 were no- 
toriously bribed or influenced corruptly. 

Although this was ominous to the ultimate fate of the 
nation, the contest still proceeded with unremitting ardor; 
numerous debates and numerous divisions took place before 
the final catastrophe; in numbers the Government made no 
progress, and never could or did contain a majority of fifty 
on the principle of a Union. 



540 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

The details of the subsequent proceedings are not within 
the range of this desultory memoir. The speech of Mr. Fos- 
ter, the Speaker, against the measure occupied four hours; 
a deference to his opinion and a respect for his true patriot- 
ism caused a dead silence throughout the entire of his ora- 
tion. On any other occasion that oration would have been 
overwhelming, but the question was, in fact, decided before 
he had in the committee any opportunity of declaring his 
opinion, and his speech was little more than recording his 
sentiments. 

Some very serious facts occurred during the progress of 
the discussion which may be worth reciting. The House was 
surrounded by military, under pretence of keeping the peace, 
which was not in danger, but, in fact, to excite terror. Lord 
Castlereagh also threatened to remove the Parliament to 
Cork if its proceedings were interrupted. But, unfortunate- 
ly, the Anti-Unionists had no efficient organization, no de- 
cided leader ; scattered and desponding, they did not excite suf- 
ficient external exertion; destiny seemed to resign the nation 
to its fate; their own brethren forsook them. The Bishops 
Troy, Lanigan and others deluded the Viceroy, sold their 
country, and basely betrayed their flocks by promoting the 
Union; the great body of Catholics were true to their coun- 
try, but the rebellion had terrified them from every overt 
act of opposition ; all was confusion, nothing could be effected 
against Lord Castlereagh, who had one million and a half to 
bribe with, under pretence of compensation, besides the se- 
cret-service money of England was at his command, and that 
was boundless. Had the proposal been made two years later 
all the wealth and power of England could not have effected 
the annexation. 

The subject is now ended, posterity will appreciate the 
injuries of Ireland. The only security England has for the 
permanence of the Union is a radical change in the nature 
and genius of the people, or a total change of system in the 
mode of governing. How blind must those Grovernments be 
which suppose that Ireland ever can be retained permanently 
by the coercive system ! Eight millions of people whose lives 
cannot be precious to them never can be permanently yoked 
to any other nation not much more physically powerful, and 
not near so warlike, save by a full particpation of rights and 
industry; with employment, protection and any means of 



In the Days of Grattan 541 

subsistence, the Irish might be the easiest managed people 
on the face of Europe; naturally loyal, naturally tractable, 
naturally adapted to labor, it is a total ignorance of their 
character abroad, with a system of petty tyranny at home, 
that destroys this people. Governing by executions has the 
very opposite effect from that intended; death is too com- 
mon to have much terrors for a desperate peasantry; hang 
100,000 every year, it would make no sensible diminuation 
of the Irish population, and certainly would add nothing to 
the tranquillity of the country. On the contrary, every ex- 
ecution increases the number of the dissatisfied, ivJio can be 
contented with the execution of his kindred? The only guard- 
ians of that devoted people, the only persons who could direct 
or guide them, are now, by the Union, forever taken away 
from them; their landlords now reside in other countries; 
no laborers are now employed on the old demesnes that sup- 
ported them. What are they to subsist upon? An idle pop- 
ulation can never cease to be a disturbed one, and if it be pos- 
sible to convince the English people that the state of Ire- 
land must soon influence their own condition, much will be 
effected. If England should be convinced that Ireland has 
been plundered by a British Minister of the only certain 
means of insuring her tranquillity (a resident Parliament), 
that the plunder has been without any beneficial operation to 
England herself, great progress will be made toward some 
better system. Half the time of the Imperial Parliament 
is now occupied upon a subject of which nothing but local 
knowledge can give a competent idea; and it is the opinion 
of the wisest and most dispassionate people that now reflect 
upon the state of the connection that either the Union must 
be rendered closer and more operative for its professed ob- 
jects, interests must be more amalgamated, and the nations 
dovetailed together, or the Union be altogether relinquished, 
the dilemma is momentous, but the alternative is inevitable. 

This digression arises from the circumstances which have 
been mentioned just preceding it. To a true-hearted Irish- 
man it must be a subject of solicitude, but a reflection on 1800 
never can arise without exciting emotions of disgust and feel- 
ings of indignation. 

After a long and ardent but an ineffective struggle the 
Anti-Unionists gave way entirely, and but little further re- 
sistance was offered to anything. 



542 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

During the progress of the Union bill through the com- 
mittee a circumstance took place which, with reference to 
analogous subjects, is of the utmost legal and constitutional 
consequence and importance. 

Mr. Eichard Annesley (afterwards Lord Annesley) was 
called to the chair of the committee, on the motion of Lord 
Castlereagh, and sat as chairman nearly throughout the en- 
tire discussion. 

Mr. R. Annesley and General Gardner had been returned 
members for the city of Clogher by the Bishop, whose prede- 
cessors had exercised that patronage through the votes of 
four or five of their own domestics, or, perhaps, of only their 
steward or chaplain, and in their own hall. On this occa- 
sion, however, the Bishop's nomination of Mr. Annesley and 
General Gardner was opposed by Mr. Charles Ball and Col- 
onel King, as an experiment, at the suggestion of Mr. Plunket. 
On the election these candidates tendered a number of the 
resident inhabitants of the district as legal constituents of 
that ancient city, over which the Bishops had in despotic 
times assumed a patronage, not only contrary to the inherent 
rights of franchise, but altogether unconstitutional, it being 
merely a nomination of members of the Commons by a spir- 
itual Lord. The Bishop's returning officer had, of course, re- 
jected all lay interference, and Mr. Annesley and General 
Gardner were returned by five or six domestics of the pre- 
late. 

This election, however, was most vigorously contested by 
Mr. Ball and Colonel King; they canvassed the vicinity, in- 
formed the landholders of their inherent rights and of the 
Bishop's usurpation. A great number appeared and ten- 
dered their votes for the new candidates, who, in their turn, 
objected to every vote received for those of the Bishop, and 
thus circumstanced, the return came back to Parliament. 

The Bishop's nominees took their seats as lawful mem- 
bers of Parliament, and as such Mr. Annesley was named 
chairman to the committee of the whole House, which voted 
all the details and articles of the Union. Mr. Ball and Col- 
onel King, however, petitioned against that return. A com- 
mittee was appointed to decide the question; every possible 
delay was contrived by the Government, and every influence 
was attempted, even over the members of the committee; 
nothing was too shameful for the arrogance of the Chancel- 



In the Days of Grattan 543 

lor (who took a furious part) and the corruption of the Sec- 
retary. 

After a month of arduous and minute investigation an old 
document was traced to the Paper Office at the Castle, which 
the Viceroy endeavored to have suppressed by the keeper of 
the records. On its production the usurpation of the Bish- 
ops was proved beyond all possibility of argument, and Mr. 
Annesley, through whose voice every clause of the Union 
had been put and carried, was declared by the House a usurp- 
er, and his election and the return thereupon was pronounced 
null and void. By this decision the whole of the proceed- 
ings of the committee had been carried on, through the instru- 
mentality and functions of a person not de jure a member 
of Parliament at the time he so acted. This point, if it had 
not been then vigorously pushed, must have led to the most 
serious and deep constitutional questions. 

It was the lex Parliamentaria that, on an election for a 
member of Parliament, all votes taken before a returning 
officer not legally qualified as such, were null and void. 

Mr. Charles Ball was excluded from voting against the 
Union the whole time of Mr. Annesley 's so usurping the du- 
ties of a member and voting in its favor. Whether his acts 
could be construed to be legal was a point rendered useless 
by the certainty of the Union being effected. 

Mr. Annesley was in his seat in the House when the re- 
port of the committee was read ; the effect was considerable. 
Mr. Annesley and General Gardner instantly rose and left 
the House, and Mr. Charles Ball and Colonel King were as 
quickly introduced, dressed in the Anti-Union uniform, and 
took their seats in the place of the discarded members. A 
new chairman was substituted for Mr. Annesley. 

Another curious instance of palpable corruption remains 
on record. Sir William Gladowe Newcomen, Bart., member 
for the county of Longford, in the course of the debate de- 
clared he supported the Union, as he was not instructed to 
the contrary by his constituents. This avowal surprised 
many, as it was known that the county was nearly unani- 
mous against the measure, and that he was well acquainted 
with the fact. However, he voted for Lord Castlereagh, and 
he asserted that conviction alone was his guide ; his veracity 
was doubted and in a few months some of his bribes were pub- 
lished. His wife was also created a peeress. 



544 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

One of his bribes has been discovered, registered in the 
Rolls office, a document which it was never supposed would 
be exposed, but which would have been grounds for impeach- 
ment against every member of the Government who thus con- 
tributed his aid to plunder the public and corrupt Parlia- 
ment. 

The following is a copy from the Eolls office of Ireland : 
By the Lord Lieutenant and General Governor of Ireland, 
Cornwallis. 

'^ Whereas, Sir William Gladowe Newcomen, Bart., hath 
by his memorial laid before us represented that on the 25th 
day of June, 1785, John, late Earl of Mayo, then Lord Vis- 
count Naas, Receiver General of Stamp Duties, together with 
Sir Thomas Newcomen, Bart., and Sir Barry Denny, Bart., 
both since deceased, as sureties for the said John, Earl of 
Mayo, executed a bond to his Majesty, conditioning to pay 
into the treasury the stamp duties received by him; that the 
said Earl of Mayo continued in the said office of Receiver 
General until the 30th day of July, 1786, when he resigned 
the same, at which time it is stated that he was indebted to 
his Majesty in the sum of about five thousand pounds, and died 
on the 7th of April, 1793 ; that the said sureties are dead, and 
the said Sir Thomas Newcomen, Bart., did by his last will 
appoint the memorialist executor of his estate ; that the memo- 
rialist proposed to pay into his Majesty's Exchequer the 
sum of two thousand pounds as a compensation for any money 
that might be recovered thereon, upon the estate being re- 
leased from any further charge on account of the said debt 
due to his Majesty. And the before-mentioned memorial 
having been referred to his Majesty's Attorney General for 
his opinion what would be proper to be done in this matter,, 
and the said Attorney General having by his report unto 
us, dated the 20th day of August, 1800, advised that, under 
all the circumstances of the case, the sum of two thousand 
pounds should be accepted of the memoralist on the part of 
the Government," etc., etc^ 

'M. TOLER.'' 

By this abstract it now appears, even by the memorial of 
Sir William Gladowe, that he was indebted at least five thou- 
sand pounds, from the year 1786, to the public treasury and 
revenue of Ireland ; that, with the interest thereon, it amount- 
ed in 1800 to ten thousand pounds ; that Sir William had as- 



In the Days of Grattan 545 

sets in his hands, as executor, to pay that debt, and that, on 
the Union, when all snoh arrears must have been paid into 
the Treasury, the Attorney General, under a reference of 
Lords Cornwallis and Castlereagh, was induced to sanction 
the transaction as reported, viz.: "under all its circum- 
stances," to forego the debt, except two thousand pounds. 
Every effort was made to find if any such sum as two thou- 
sand pounds was credited to the public, and none such was 
discovered. The fact is that Lord Naas owed ten thousand 
pounds, consequently Sir William owed twenty thousand; 
that he never bona fide paid to the public one shilling, which, 
with a peerage, the patronage of his county and the pecuniary 
pickings also received by himself, altogether formed a tol- 
erably strong bribe, even for a more qualmish conscience than 
that of Sir William. 

But all the individual instances of the corrupt influence 
which seduced so many members of the Irish Parliament to 
betray their trusts and transmit their names to posterity as 
the most fatal enemies of that island where they drew their 
breath, would be a labor of too great an extent for a work 
of this description. But it will suffice to convince the Brit- 
ish Empire that the Union between England and Ireland was 
the corrupt work of the very minister who was called over 
with his Irish flock to become the shepherd of the British na- 
tion. 

The few following authenticated examples of corrupt se- 
duction by Lords Cornwallis and Castlereagh individually 
may give some slight idea of the general system : 

Mr. Francis Knox and Mr. Crowe, two Irish barristers, 
were returned to Parliament for the close borough of Philips- 
town, under the patronage of Lord Belvidere. In the session 
of 1799 they violently opposed the Union. Mr. Knox said: 
''I am satisfied that in point of commerce England has noth- 
ing to give to this country ; but, where it otherwise, I would 
not condescend to argue the subject, for I would not surren- 
der the liberties of my country for the riches of the universe ! 
I cannot find words to express the horror I feel at a propo- 
sition so extremely degrading. It is insulting to entertain 
it, even for a moment. What! Shall we deliberate whether 
this kingdom shall cease to exist; whether this land shall be 
struck from the scale of nations ; whether its very name is 
to be erased from the map of the world forever? Shall it, 



646 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

I say, be a question whether we surrender to another sep- 
arate country and to another separate legislature the lives, 
the liberties and the properties of five millions of people who 
delegated us to defend but not to destroy the constitution? 
It is a monstrous proposition, and should be considered mere- 
ly in order to mingle our disgust and execration with those 
of the people and then to dash it from us, never to 
be resumed!" Mr. Crowe held similar language. 

The Earl of Belvidere then called a meeting of the county 
of Westmeath to enter into resolutions against the Union, 
and his proposed resolutions, in his own handwriting, declar- 
atory of his resistance to that measure, are here inserted. 
Mr. Crowe termed its supporters ''flagitious culprits," and 
boldly declaimed against the unexampled profligacy of the 
iViceroy and his Irish Secretary. It is fortunate for history 
that irrefragable proofs exist of this statement, and that 
Great Britain may pursue the mode by which Ireland has 
been united to her. Every line of such documents might well 
form a ground of prosecution or impeachment for high crimes 
and misdemeanors against both the Viceroy and the Secre- 
tary. 

The Earl of Belvidere and his two friends had expressed 
themselves too strongly against the Union, and were of too 
much importance to be left untempted. The Marquis, there- 
fore, undertook to manage the Peer, whilst Lord Castlereagh 
engaged to seduce the Commoners. Mr. Usher, the Earl's 
chaplain, wise man and adviser, was also enlisted to effect the 
seduction of his patron and of his accessories. The negotia- 
tion completely succeeded. 

The English nation will scarcely believe the fact that, 
within a few months, his Lordship, with Mr. Knox and Mr. 
Crowe, were literally purchased, and in four months after 
publishing the resolutions in favor of the measure were cir- 
culated by his Lordship among his tenantry. As soon as 
the bribe was fixed, as he conceived, the whole of his Lord- 
ship's former principles were recanted and condemned as 
hasty and against the general opinion of the people. 

Lord Cornwallis had now gained his point, and turned 
round on the apostates; they were disgraced traitors; they 
were now helpless; they durst not again recant. The terms 
had been munificent; nothing required by Lord Belvidere 
had been refused by the Marquis ; but after he had made their 



In the Days of Grattan 547 

defection public and irrevocable he gave bis Lordsbip to un- 
derstand that there was a misconception as to the terms, 
which, being matters of detail, could be more properly ar- 
ranged by the Secretary; and thus he turned them over to 
the mercy of Lord Castlereagh. His Lordship, seeing they 
were entrapped beyond the power of escaping, soon con- 
vinced them that he also knew how to despise the instru- 
ments he had corrupted. Mr. Usher, the chaplain, was to be 
remunerated for soothing the conscience of Lord Belvidere; 
the clergy are seldom reluctant when good bargains are go- 
ing forward, but a general dissatisfaction now arose among 
all the parties. Usher, however, was contented; he got a 
cure of souls for his political guilt, and, after having aided 
in corruption, went to preach purity to his parishioners! 

The English people would scarcely credit the most ac- 
curate historian, did not the annexed letter prove the whole 
transaction and leave them to ruminate upon the nefarious 
system to which they were themselves subject, under the same 
minister. In England an impeachment would have been the 
result of this disclosure, but in Ireland it was the least of 
Lord Castlereagh 's malpractices. 

Mr. Crowe's letter, shortly after Lord Belvidere was pur- 
chased by Lord Cornwallis : 

*' October 4th, 1799. 

''My Bear Lord—^hi^ moment yours of the 3rd inst. has 
been delivered by the postman. I am heartily concerned that 
I am obliged to differ with your Lordship (for the first time 
during a three and twenty years' friendship) in point of 
fact : as to what passed between Lord Cornwallis it has noth- 
ing to do with the present question, which is simply 'whether 
the agreement made by Mr. Knox with Lord Castlereagh 
is to be adhered to or violated.' This agreement was two 
months subsequent to your conversation with Lord Corn- 
wallis, and you will recollect you had two interviews with 
the Viceroy, the latter of which was by no means so flatter- 
ing as the first, and was very far from holding out splendid 
expectations, but all prior discussions are always done away 
by a subsequent agreement, for otherwise it would be absurd 
ever to think of making one, which would always be open to 
be departed from by any of the parties on a suggestion that 
in a prior conversation this thing was said or the other thing 
:was done, An agreement once made, nothing remains but 



548 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

to carry it into effect according to its terms as fast as pos- 
sible. The business then comes to this, what was the agree- 
ment made by Mr. Knox with Lord Castlereagh respecting 
the only point that has induced your Lordship to delay mat- 
ters, all the rest being confessedly understood, namely, 'the 
vacating Mr. Knox's seat and mine in order to give the re- 
turn of the two members to Government in our places.' • 

' ' This particular Mr. Knox stated distinctly and explicitly 
that Lord Castlereagh, at the outset of the negotiation, laid 
it down as a sine qua non that we must vacate our seats in the 
present Parliament, and that he should have the nomination 
of the two new members. But such a distinction as your 
Lordship conceives of vacating for the question of Union, 
and in case Government should be defeated on that meas- 
ure, that those two new members should vacate, and that 
you should have a power of nominating in their stead the 
remainder of the Parliament, never in the slightest degree 
was made by Mr. Knox, nor even by your Lordship ; but, on 
the contrary, your Lordship assented to that part as well as to 
every other part of the treaty with Lord Castlereagh, and 
from the instant you thus gave your assent a full, complete 
and perfect agreement took place. Mr. Usher was present 
at all this, and it is his duty to come forward and declare 
the fact. 

''On the 10th of .July this negotiation commenced, and 
from that period to this I have been kept in town from my con- 
cerns in law, in constant expectation of having it concluded, 
and now, nearly at the end of three months, to have it all 
upset is very severe. 

"As to the engagement that your Lordship describes and 
that your burgesses signed, it is a direct contradiction to that 
part of the agreement it professes to be conformable to, and 
is so much trouble for nothing, but what appears extraordi- 
nary to me, along with all the rest of this extraordinary busi- 
ness, is that your Lordship should prepare or get this en- 
gagement signed after you were apprised, both by Mr. Knox's 
letters and mine to you and Mr. Usher, that anything short 
of the identical paper sent down by Mr. Knox would not 
answer. I have nothing more to add than to request your 
Lordship will bring Mr. Usher up with you directly. 

"I am, my dear Lord, Yours most sincerely, 

**RoB, Crowe." 

*'To the Earl of Belvidere,'* etc., etc. 



In the Days of Grattan 549 

RESOLUTIONS. 

In the handwriting of the Earl of Belvidere, prepared by 
him for the Freeholders of the County of Westmeath, against 
a Legislative Union in 1799. His Lordship afterwards voted 
for and supported that measure warmly. 

''Resolved, That the free and independent Legislature of 
Ireland having been unequivocally established, every meas- 
ure that tends to encroach on it calls for our implicit disap- 
probation. 

The depending project of a Union with Great Britain, 
the appearance of being merely a transfer of the Parlia- 
ment, is, in fact, a complete extinction of it ; that it is the duty 
of Irishmen of every description to come forward and by 
all constitutional means to resist a scheme so subversive of 
the real interest, prosperity and dignity of their country. 

That we entertain too high an opinion of the integrity of 
our representatives to suppose them capable of voting away 
the rights of the people, had a power of such nature been ever 
invested in them." 

This transaction between Lord Cornwallis and Castle- 
reagh, and Lord Belvidere and Messrs. Knox and Crowe, 
ought to be one of the most useful lessons to the British na- 
tion ; there will be seen in the sad fate of Ireland the means 
by which their own liberties may be destroyed. 

Before the third reading of the bill, when it was about 
to be reported, Mr. Charles Ball, member for Clogher, rose 
and, without speaking one word, looked around impressively ; 
every eye was directed to him ; he only pointed his hand sig- 
nificantly to the bar and immediately walked forth, casting 
a parting look behind him and turning his eyes to Heaven, as 
if to invoke vengeance on the enemies of his country. His 
example was contagious. Those anti-Unionists who were in 
the House immediately followed his example, and never re- 
turned into that Senate which had been the glory, the guard- 
ian, and the protection of their country. There was but one 
scene more and the curtain was to drop forever. 

The day of extinguishing the liberties of Ireland had now 
arrived and the sun took his last view of an independent Ire- 
land; he rose no more over a proud and prosperous nation. 
She was now condemned by the British Minister to renounce 
her rank amongst the States of Europe; she was sentenced 



550 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

to cancel her constitution, to disband her Commons, and dis- 
franchise her nobility, to proclaim her incapacity, and regis- 
ter her corruption in the records of the empire. On this 
fatal event some whose honesty the tempter could not de- 
stroy, some whose honor he dare not assail, and many who 
could not control the useless language of indignation, pru- 
dently withdrew from a scene where they would have wit- 
nessed the downfall of their country. Every precaution was 
taken by Lord Clare for the security, at least, of his own per- 
son. The Houses of Parliament were closely invested by 
the military. No demonstration of popular feeling was per- 
mitted. A British regiment near the entrance patrolled 
through the Ionic colonnades. The chaste architecture of that 
classic structure seemed as a monument to the falling Irish, 
to remind them of what they had been and to tell them what 
they were. It was a heart-rending sight to those who loved 
their country ; it was a sting to those who sold it, and to those 
who purchased it, a victory; but to none has it been a tri- 
umph. Thirty-three years of miserable experience should 
now convince the British people that they have gained neither 
strength, nor affection, nor tranquillity by their acquisition, 
and that if population be the ** wealth of nations," Ireland 
is getting far too rich to be governed much longer as a pauper. 

The British people knew not the true history of the Union, 
that the brilliant promises, the predictions of rapid pros- 
perity and ''consolidating resources" were but chimerical. 
Whilst the finest principles of the constitution were sapped 
to effect the measure, England, by the subjugation of her sis- 
ter kingdom, gained only an accumulation of debt, an acces- 
sion of venality to her Parliament, an embarrassment in her 
councils, and a prospective danger to the integrity of the 
empire. The name of Union has been acquired, but the at- 
attainment of the substance has been removed farther than 
ever. 

The Commons House of Parliament, on the last evening 
afforded the most melancholy example of a fine, independent 
people, betrayed, divided, sold, and, as a State, annihilated. 
British clerks and officers were smuggled into her Parlia- 
ment to vote away the constitution of a country to which 
they were strangers, and in which they had neither interest 
nor connection. They were employed to cancel the royai 
charter of the Irish nation, guaranteed by the British Gov- 



In the Days of Grattan 551 

ernment, sanctioned by the British legislature, and unequiv- 
ocally confirmed by the words, the signature, and the great 
seal of their monarch. 

The situation of the Speaker on that night was of the 
most distressing nature; a sincere and ardent enemy of the 
measure, he headed its opponents ; he resisted it with all the 
power of his mind, the resources of his experience, his in- 
fluence and his eloquence. 

It was, however, through his voice that it was to be pro- 
claimed and consummated. His only alternative (resigna- 
tion) would have been unavailing, and could have added noth- 
ing to his character. His expressive countenance bespoke the 
inquietude of his feeling; solicitude was perceptible in every 
glance, and his embarrassment was obvious in every word he 
uttered. 

The galleries were full, but the change was lamentable; 
they were no longer crowded with those who had been ac- 
customed to witness the eloquence and to animate the debates 
of that devoted assembly. A monotonous and melancholy 
murmur ran through the benches, scarcely a word was ex- 
changed amongst the members, nobody seemed at ease, no 
cheerfulness was apparent, and the ordinary business for 
a short time proceeded in the usual manner. 

At length the expected moment arrived, the order of the 
day for the third reading of the bill, for a *' Legislative Union 
between Great Britain and Ireland," was moved by Lord 
Castlereagh ; unvaried, tame, cold-blooded, the words seemed 
frozen as they issued from his lips, and, as if a simple citi- 
zen of the world, he seemed to have no sensation on the sub- 
ject. 

At that moment he had no country, no god but his ambi- 
tion; he made his motion and resumed his seat with the ut- 
most composure and indifference. 

Confused murmurs again ran through the House; it was 
visibly affected; every character in a moment seemed invol- 
untarily rushing to its index, some pale, some flushed, some 
agitated; there were few countenances to which the heart 
did not dispatch some messenger. Several members with- 
drew before the question could be repeated, and an awful 
momentary silence succeeded their departure. The Speaker 
rose slowly from that chair which had been the proud source 
of his honors, and of his high character; for a moment he 



552 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



resumed Ms seat, but the strength of his mind sustained him 
in his duty, though his struggle was apparent. With that 
dignity which never failed to signalize his official actions he 
held up the bill for a moment in silence; he looked steadily 
around him on the last agony of the expiring Parliament. 
He at length repeated in an emphatic tone, "As many as are 
of opinion that THIS BILL do pass, say aye." The affirma- 
tive was languid but indisputable ; another momentary pause 
ensued, again his lips seemed to decline their office ; at length, 
with an eye averted from the object which he hated, he pro- 
claimed, with a subdued voice, ''THE AYES HAVE IT." 

The fatal sentence was now pronounced; for an instant 
he stood statue-like ; then indignantly, and with disgust, flung 
the bill upon the table and sank into his chair with an ex- 
hausted spirit. An independent country was thus degraded 
into a province ; Ireland, as a nation, was EXTINGUISHED. 




Ornament on top of Devenish Round Tower. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers," 400. 



SECTION V. 



THE MEN WHO DIED 
FOR IRELAND IN '48 AND '67 



O'NEILL CROWLEY'S LAST STAND 



BT 



M. A. MANNING, First Editor, Dublin Weekly Independent 



CONTAINING 



A GRAPHIC AND PICTURESQUE ACCOUNT OF THE FENIAN 
DAYS IN IRELAND 



553 




DANIEL O'CONNELL, 
The Liberator Who Won CathoHc Emancipation. 



THE MEN WHO DIED FOR IRELAND 
IN '48 AND '67. 

BY M. A. MANNING, FIRST EDITOR, DUBLIN WEEKLY 
INDEPENDENT. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

DANIEL O'CONNELL had won Catholic Emancipation 
at a large price— the sacrifice of the Forty Shilling Freehold- 
ers; but even at such a price, Catholic Emancipation meant 
a great deal to Ireland, and earned for O'Connell the proud 
title of ''Liberator." The tithes still existed, however, and 
the Protestant clergymen of the established church, assisted 
by the soldiers and police, compelled the Catholic people to 
deliver to them a share of the products of their farms. 'Con- 
nelPs attempts in Parliament to abolish this unjust and un- 
reasonable system came to naught. It remained for the men 
of Kilkenny "in the narrow boreen at Carrickshock" to deal 
a deathblow to the Tithes Act, and well and fearlessly they 
did it. 

When Mitchell, Davis, Dillon and Duffy came upon the 
scene and began to preach the doctrines that culminated in 
the abortive rising of '48, O'Connell 's power began to wane, 
and he was no longer an important factor in Irish politics. 
The story of '48 has been told so often in song and story that 
the compilers feel it would be superfluous to include it in this 
work. It is their purpose to preserve for the Irish people 
and their descendants in America some of the things that 
are in danger of being lost, and to add many things more 
that have not been touched upon already. Hence the promi- 
nence given in the book to several new articles on new sub- 
jects as well as to the accounts of the Wexford Rebellion and 
the history of Grattan's Parliament, both books being now 
out of print. 

The thrilling narrative of the Fenian movement, center- 
ing around the heroic O'Neill Crowley, is given as a sample 
of the sacrifices and patriotism of the men of that period— 

555 



556 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Stephens, Kickham, O'Leary, the Sheares brothers, Allen, 
Larkin, O'Brien and scores of others. It is one of the most 
beautifully written stories of an Irish Revolutionary move- 
ment that has ever been given to the public. It is impossible 
for an Irishman to read it without becoming a more ardent 
patriot and truer friend of liberty than he was before. 

As regards Emmet and Tone, it may be said that their 
efforts for Irish freedom are known to every man, woman 
and child of the Irish race to-day, and annually meetings are 
held in their honor at which their exploits are extolled and 
their principles adopted. Hence, any lengthened account of 
the part which they took in the fight for the independence of 
Ireland would not be new, and, it seems to us, at the present 
time is unnecessary. But, in another section, Emmet's im- 
mortal speech from the dock will be found in full. It gives 
a better insight into his character and motives than any biog- 
raphy, however excellent, could supply. P. P. Holden. 




Composed from the Book of Kelis. 



CHAPTER I. 

O'NEILL Crowley's last stand ''for Ireland"— by m. a. man- 
ning, FIRST editor of THE DUBLIN WEEKLY INDEPENDENT. 

In the very southeast of Cork county, a mile or so inland 
from the bold cliffs that stand eternal sentinel at the entrance 
to Yonghal Harbor, is the little village of Ballymacoda. Just 
one street of low-roofed, tidy houses and the village church, 
built on the rising ground, solid and unpicturesque. All 
around are green fields, and here and there clusters of firs 
and young oaks. 'Tis a fair country around this quiet vil- 
lage, no broad rivers or tall mountains, no hillsides with 
golden gorse and purple heather, no background like the 
frowning Comeraghs or the grey hills that frame the Golden 
Vale of Tipperary, but yet a fair country— a fair, green old 
land, where Irishmen and Irishwomen might live in gentle 
peace and in quiet. An old historic country, too, this stretch 
of land from Glanmire to Knockadoon, with its traditions of 
bloody massacres and burnings, incursions and devastations. 
Storm-beaten and shattered on many a surrounding hill, sil- 
houetted against the sky, grim even in their desolation and 
decay, stand the broken walls of many a castle-fortress and 
the grey ruins of many a watch-tower. The winds that blow 
from the sea sigh through the hollow keeps; but on wild 
nights, when the roar of the distant ocean is heard like the 
moan of a man, and the sea spume is carried inland, the 
hoarse winds howl as they hurry through the ruined halls, 
tearing the ivy from crumbling stones, and oftentimes wrench- 
ing great mullions from the walls and dashing them down in 
mad fury, just as if the spirits of the old lords rode on the 
tempests and were furious at these headstones to their fallen 
fortunes. 

In the chapel grounds are two monuments, things of stone, 
but beautiful in their simplicity, telling a pathetic and terrible 
tale. One, time-stained, weather-worn, enclosed with iron 
railings, the enclosure overrun with sweetbriar and ivy; the 
other more modem, tall and stately, standing erect and proud, 
as if challenging the verdict of all men on him who sleeps 
below. The first marks the place where were laid the bones 

557 



558 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

of Father Peter O'Neill, the poor priest the English Chris- 
tians flogged as a rebel through the streets of Cork in '98 ; and 
beneath the other was buried the corpse of O'Neill Crowley, 
who died on the slopes of Kilclooney Wood in '67, with an 
English bullet in his heart. 

Facing the east, let into the base of a glorious Celtic cross, 
is a panel, on which is graven the brief record of a man's life 
in the language of the country in which he lived and for whose 
freedom he died; and when the sun dies amid the blood-red 
glory of the west it lights up the same record graven in the 
tongue of the men who slew him. 

Erected by the Irish People 

To the memory of the patriot, 

PETER O'NEILL CROWLEY, 

Who was shot down by the British Soldiery 

whilst bravely fighting 

For his country's independence 

At Kilclooney Wood, March 31, 1867, 

in the 35th year of his age. 

R. L P.-Amen. 





Q 

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H 
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G 
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P4 
O 

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H 
P 



CHAPTER II. 

He was born here in Ballymacoda on the 23rd of May, 
1832, in a homely two-storied thatched house just above the 
church, on the brow of the hill. His father was a rebel be- 
fore him, and took up arms in '98, when the nation could no 
longer bear its martyrdom. He lived a proscribed rebel for 
many a year, with a price upon his head. And the old priest, 
Crowley's uncle, after whom he was named, he, too, served 
God and loved his land. And he was tied to a triangle and 
flogged like a dog, was this young priest, flayed by these 
Saxon Gospelers, scourged until the bones stood bare through 
his torn flesh, until his blood made pools on the barrack 
ground. Ah, it came kindly to this man who sleeps by the 
old priest's side in Ballymacoda to hate these English as 
only goodly men can hate and to die as a goodly man should 
die— with his face to the foe and his life-blood welling from 
his side. 

A silent man, a man gentle and kindly, never loud voiced ; 
he went among his fellow men and told of the dawning of a 
bright day for Ireland, and people came and listened to him 
and wondered and believed. And his sister, a woman of deep 
resolution, who loved him dearly, an Irishwoman who felt 
as he felt, but held her peace, had the burden placed upon 
her of managing his affairs, for he went about from place to 
place and his home often missed him for weeks together. 
He was keenly alive to the responsibilities and dangers of the 
movement which he encouraged the people to join, but he 
felt it a sacred duty to free his land, and deemed her liberty 
the heritage of her sons. 

Often when returning by the cliff roads to his home on 
some clear night when the mists rolled seaward, he could see, 
afar off, shining like a star in the east, the gleam of the Hook 
Light on the Wexford coast. To him it seemed a beacon, 
warning and beckoning. Afar off truly, but it marked the 
ground where brave men had once fought and died for Ire- 
land, and he would raise aloft his clenched and trembling 
hands and swear to strike a blow as did the Shilmalier in '98 
—and well he kept his vow. 

559 



CHAPTER III. 

The Fenian movement grew and developed, and nowliere 
did it take a firmer hold than in East Cork. Midleton had a 
muster roll of five hundred men and every parish and every 
village had its sworn contingent. Early in '67 Irish hearts 
beat high with courage and hope and Young Ireland panted 
for the day of reckoning. Its sad, sad ending and the ter- 
rible betrayals are matters of history. We deal only with 
one tragic incident that is an epitome of pity and of heroism. 

Captain McClure, a young American born at Dobb's Ferry, 
about fifty miles from New York City, and who served with 
distinction in the American war, retiring at the termination of 
that terrible struggle with the rank of Brevet Captain of 
Cavalry, offered his sword to the service of the Irish Repub- 
lican Brotherhood. He was born of Irish parents, and had 
heard from his father stories of the Old Land that had set 
his young blood coursing wildly through his veins, and made 
him pray for the time when, amid the glitter of steel and the 
smoke of battle, the freedom of Ireland might be won. He 
hoped and dreamed as did O'Neill Crowley, and they stood 
together in the fatal wood. He sailed from America early 
in '67 and landed in Glasgow; journeyed from thence to Liv- 
erpool, and proceeded to Cork, where he was charged with 
the control and organization of the Midleton district. Then 
he met Crowley, recognized in him the stuff of which heroes 
are made, and trusted him. Crowley, on the other hand, 
perceived in this dark-featured, square-built man, short of 
stature, but active and daring, one to be relied upon in dan- 
ger, quick to act and strike. 

How McClure 's soul must have sickened; how his heart 
must have grown leaden with despair when he found his 
hopes shattered. No arms, no stores, no ammunition; noth- 
ing but men, ready and willing, Irishmen who patiently wait- 
ed and blindly trusted. Nothing— when he was led to be- 
lieve he would be met with a disciplined force, rifles in their 
hands and cartridges in their pouches. 



560 



CHAPTER IV. 

Tuesday, the 5tli day of March, 1867. The dawn of a bit- 
ter day for Ireland. True to his oath, O'Neill Crowley took 
his place at the head of his contingent and captured and 
sacked the coast-guard station at Knockadoon, a few short 
miles from Ballymacoda. The Midleton contingent, num- 
bering many hundreds, was to form a junction with Crow- 
ley's force. They marched out of the town and, under the 
command of Timothy Daly, attacked the police patrol, de- 
manding their arms. A skirmish ensued, in which a sergeant 
lost his life, and the Constabulary hastily retired. Thence 
on to the Youghal crossroads, where they were to meet Crow- 
ley and place themselves under the direction of Corydon, who 
was to have come from Cork that day to take up the chief 
command of the forces in this part of County Cork. But 
no Corydon canle ; Corydon, informer and spy, dealer in men's 
lives, betrayer of his country and her cause, had already 
played the Judas. McClure saw all too clearly the criminal 
folly of keeping his body of men together. He felt they were 
betrayed, and they had no adequate arms or ammunition. He 
acted promptly. He gave the order to disperse to their 
homes. 

But there were some there who, in their wild despair, in 
the agony of betrayal, would not go tamely back. Daly pushed 
jon to Castlemartyr, a long and weary march, and attacked 
the police barracks there. His companions dragged a cart 
of hay across the road close by the barracks, and, using it 
as a cover, opened fire. They were answered by volley after 
volley, and Daly, receiving his death wound, staggered a few 
paces and fell dead with a bullet in his breast. His body 
was borne to his home in Chapel road, in Midleton, and there 
they kneeled over him and prayed and lit the death candles. 
And armed men, representing the might of Britain, stood 
beside the corpse, men with set faces and grounded rifles, 
guarding the dead. 

And to-day there stands in Killeagh Churchyard a great 
Celtic cross raised to his memory, a tribute to a man of the 
people who stood forth from the ranks and died. 

661 



CHAPTER V. 

O'Neill Crowley knew there would be a price set upon 
the head of the young American who had crossed the seas 
to help them. So he determined to stand by him ; he believed 
it to be his duty. Accompanied by a few daring and reso- 
lute men, they set out to march across the county of Cork, 
hoping all along that the Fenian rising had not been a failure 
in Mitchelstown district and South Tipperary ; hoping against 
hope that they would in those places find others to join 
with them and make a last stand in the passes of the Galtee 
Mountains or the hillsides that look down on the valley of 
Aherlow. 

Stealthily they marched by night— here receiving word of 
the flying columns that scoured the country; there avoiding 
places where troops were hastily gathered together, having 
many a hair-breadth escape and many a tragic adventure. 
But Crowley came from a countryside that bred never an in- 
former, and his courage was unflagging. And all hope was 
not crushed. The Corydon betrayal could only be a single 
instance of infamy. Irishmen could not be such traitors. 
Alas and alas! 

And the peasants opened their doors to them and bade 
them welcome and gave them food and shelter, and prayed 
God be with them when they left in the darkness of the cold 
March night. On and on to the Galtees that now stood out 
dark and lonely before them. And many a Munster peasant 
who gave them succor was arrested and threatened and ca- 
joled and wheedled and offered golden bribes, but they spake 
not a word, these Munster peasants. And Crowley and Mc- 
Clure and their handful of followers arrived weary and trav- 
el-worn at the grove of Ballymacourty, a few miles north of 
Kilclooney "Wood. Here, too, the same story. Strong men, 
fearless men, ready to take the field, but no arms, no organ- 
ization. The day of rising found them utterly undisciplined 
—an enrolled and unarmed army. If it had been otherwise 
Ireland could boast her Bannockburn. 



.^62 







f . 




LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. 



THEOBALD WOLFE TONE. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The authorities were mightily scared. They were face 
to face with a terrible danger. Informer after informer— 
Irishmen all of them— God forgive them!— trooped into Dub- 
lin Castle and into every police barrack throughout the coun- 
try. The Executive began to realize the extent of the con- 
spiracy and rebellion that had only missed fire. Mounted 
Constabulary had been sent to the disaffected districts early 
in the month, with instructions to learn the lie of the land 
in order to act as guides to the flying columns when necessary. 
Troops were hastily transported to those centers where the 
authorities knew the ashes were smouldering, and where the 
flames might break out afresh with the lightest breath. Ah ! 
well the Government knew where to mass the redcoats, for 
the informer had done his work silently and well. In the 
great barracks at Mitchelstown were several companies of 
the Cork Regiment of the line, together with a vast force of 
police, and Neil Brown, the Resident Magistrate, was there, 
and he was exceedingly busy. For every night came men, 
close wrapped and muffled up ; and they were hastily shown 
into his private office, and they stayed with him for hours. 
In the darkness they came and in the darkness they stole 
away, glancing uneasily about, fearful of being recognized. 
For they came with a story that ever commanded a price ; they 
earned blood money. Men— it seems such a woeful pity to 
call them men— things mean of soul, creeping things, these 
spies and traitors who hunted down their own flesh and blood 
for a handful of money. 

And in the early dawn mounted men, armed and ready, 
would ride forth from the barrack gates and off to some farm- 
stead or wooded knoll, only to find their quarry flown. For 
if the informers were watchful so were the poor peasants, 
whose eyes were sharp and keen, and who loved these hunted 
outlaws. Once the troopers, acting on sure information, sur- 
rounded Ballymacourty Wood in the early morning and 
searched every nook and dell. They discovered swords and 
three rifles, abandoned by McClure's party in their hurried 
retreat. They were late, were these trained troopers; the 

563 



564 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

poor people saw them coming and baffled them. Again the^ 
entered the house of a man named Lee. A few moments ere ' 
they came he was entertaining eight of the rebels. Neil 
Brown found the plates upon the table and counted them ; but 
not a word would pass Lee's lips, although the magistrate 
stormed and raved and threatened. For all peasants were 
not cowards, Neil Brown ! Again were Crowley and McClure 
in Kirk's house and in other neighbors' places, and the au- 
thorities could not seize them— they always came too late. 
From house to house, from wood to wood were the rebels 
driven, spied upon, informed upon, tracked and hunted, but 
never captured. 

They might have dispersed now, this small band of daring 
men, and have gone back to their homes ; but the hope grew 
that all this struggle would surely come to something, and 
the hope became a belief and then a conviction. And the 
fame of the stand they were making spread throughout the 
country and the people began to hope again. And promises 
of aid and reinforcements were secretly brought to them. 
Then did McClure and Crowley appoint Sunday, the 31st of 
March, as the day on which these soldiers of Ireland would 
meet if a blow was to be struck in real earnestness. The time 
was to be at the dawning of the day. The place was to be 
Kilclooney Wood. And they waited patiently for that morn- 
ing—and so did the English garrison in Mitchelstown. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Kilclooney Wood covers a rising ground, a steep slope. 
'Around the base winds the Ahaphooka, a mountain stream, a 
tributary of the Funehion. It rises about six miles higher 
up in Glenoisin, or Glenisheen; that is, the Vale of Oisin, 
for in Munster they pronounce it '^Isheen." It sings its 
way through Glen Rue, the Red Glen, named from the color of 
its bright furze, or, as some say, because of the blood that 
was shed in the many battles fought there in the far-off days 
of Finn and his companions. The brow of the wood is circled 
by the Kildorrery road, and facing it on the other side of 
the stream is a high plateau. A regular trap— a trap when 
once in it, it was hard to escape. The trees were planted 
about 30 years previous to the date we write of, and the un- 
derwood was sparse and thin. Even now the place would 
afford meagre protection to any body of men— the trees are 
too thinly planted and its position and general character ren- 
der it a wretched spot for either shelter or concealment. It 
was, however, selected by McClure for neither purpose ; it was 
an appointed meeting place, nothing more. A quantity of 
the timber had lately been felled, but thirty years ago the 
wood covered about seven acres and was some six hundred 
yards in length, the depth from the roadway to the stream 
at the bottom varying from 70 to 100 yards. The surface of 
the ground is extremely regular, no mound or hollow to af- 
ford means of concealment or protection against British bul- 
lets. By the roadside, above the wood, stand a few farm 
houses. In one there lives to-day, as there did on the 31st 
of March, 1867, a man named John Hennessy. In another 
was a family named Hanley. For nearly thirty years has 
that old man, John Hennessy, lived under the fearful stigma 
of being the wretch who sold Crowley to the English Gov- 
ernment. And to-day we lift the shadow from his life. Mary 
Hanley, who was but a girl then, will tell her story bye and 
bye. 



565 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The plantation is on the Kingston estate, a family that 
is practically extinct. A curious family, these Kingstons. 
Anna, the last Countess of Kingston, remarried to a com- 
moner, lives to-day bereft of the family estates. The broad 
acres have long since been mawed by the money-lender and 
the mortgagee. She lives in the great castle that cost hun- 
dreds of thousands of pounds to erect, fenced in by the de- 
mesne wall, a great seven-mile circle of stone and mortar. 
In the days of the Volunteers a Viscount Kingston raised 
a troop of Yeomen. But as times changed we find Captain 
Viscount Kingsborough in '98 commanding the Mitchelstown 
Yeomanry Cavalry, ''who were admirably expert in cutting 
down the unarmed peasantry." In '98 a Colonel Kingston 
was captured by the Wexford rebels, and his life was spared 
on the intercession of a priest who knew him well. *'Who 
will give me safe conduct through your lines and lead me to 
the Royalist camp?" asked this Kingston. "I will," spoke 
up the rebel priest, ''if you guarantee my return." And 
Kingston swore a mighty oath that no harm would come to 
him. They passed the lines and entered the King's camp. 
And the English soldiers seized the rebel priest and bound 
him. "What mean you!" he cried out; "has not Kingston 
given me his plighted word?" "Have you it in writing?" 
sneered the gentleman who wore King George 's scarlet. And 
he, this Kingston threw the rope around the rebel's throat 
and went forth from him. And they hanged that priest gal- 
lows-high. And bye and bye came that Kingston, and he 
glanced up and saw the dead face and the staring, open eyes 
of him he had betrayed, and he laughed and passed on, say- 
ing "God save the King!" 

These yeomen colonels and perjured King's men have long 
since passed away, and Anna, the last Countess, lives her 
dreary life in the great castle. Strange, is it not, that the 
Roches and the Condons and all the others who were despoiled 
of their lands still live on in the town of the Mitchels, whilst 
their house has fallen and their sun has set. 



565 



CHAPTER IX. 

Sometimes outlaws lay in the woods and changed from 
place to place, baffling the authorities by the rapidity of their 
movements. It was on the Tuesday before the 31st of March 
that Crowley determined to venture on a journey to Cork 
city. The risk was great, but the stake he played for was 
greater. It was absolutely necessary for the success of Mc- 
Clure's plans that he should open up communication with 
some of the faithful men in the Rebel City, and, above all, 
to procure the means to purchase stores and requisites— in- 
dispensable necessaries should their schemes develop. Crow- 
ley, disguised as a laborer or carrier, made his way to the 
city and was seen there and recognized on the Thursday. 
As suddenly and mysteriously as he appeared, as suddenly 
and mysteriously did he disappear. There is ample evidence 
to prove that the agent whom Crowley believed would have 
a substantial sum of money to place at his disposal was not 
found by him, or that the expected assistance was not avail- 
able or had miscarried. He set out on his return journey 
to keep his tryst in Kilclooney "Wood on the following Sun- 
day. On nearing Mitchelstown he learned that the troops 
had made a descent on the Ballymacourty plantation, dis- 
persing McClure's party, who were so anxiously awaiting his 
return. Grasping the situation, he acted with promptitude. 
He had word conveyed to McClure that he would rest that 
night in Hanley's house, the dwelling already referred to, and 
there he would expect to be joined by him ere daybreak. It 
was a long and weary foot-march he made that Saturday. 
A few of the men who had warned him of the military raid 
on Ballmacourty refused to leave him until they saw him 
safe in Hanley's house. The utmost caution was necessary, 
as mounted patrols were scouring the roads. In the twilight 
silently the outlaws moved along, noiselessly, like shadows. 
Now taking to the fields, now crossing a borheen. Suddenly 
the regular beat of hoofs, the jangle of scabbards, and the 
glitter of sabres. Hurriedly the few rebels crouch beneath 
the shadow of a thick hedge and wait. They can hear their 
own breathing as the troop halts. A whispered word of com- 

567 



568 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



mand and some of the cavalry dismount and enter the very- 
field where their prey lie crouched and waiting. In the si- 
lence, the click of a rifle hammer. As the horses form in line 
on the road beyond the steam rises from their flanks, for they 
have ridden hard and fast that day. The dismounted men 
beat about, their carbines in their hands, ready and expectant. 
They come within a few yards of the deep shadow. A few 
steps more and there is death in store for many a man. One 
cries out that the field is tenantless as a church, and they retire, 
mount their horses and ride away. And as their figures van- 
ish in the gathering gloom Crowley breathes a deep breath 
and returns his revolver to his belt. He is glad, for he has 
work to do to-morrow. 

On once more, until their figures merge into the darkness 
that now hangs like a pall over the wood of Kilclooney. A 
single light burns in the window of Hanley's dwelling. A 
few hurried words, a grasp or two of the hand, and Crowley 
is alone. He knocks at the door, it opens and Mary Hanley 
bids him enter. * ' God be with you ! ' ' she says, and Crowley 
says ' ' Amen. ' ' The door closes, the window is darkened, and 
the silence is unbroken save by the night winds that moan a 
dirge among the solemn aisles of bare trees in the wood out- 
side. 




Composed from Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER X. 

A few Hundred yards from this spot, in a small, one- 
storied, thatclied public house, lived Edward Goffe}^ Beside 
the gates of the chapel of Shraherla he lived, and there, too, 
he died. A man that found it hard to make ends meet, al- 
though he had had neither wife nor child to burden him. It 
was a general shop, this house of Coffey's, and two girls were 
there who managed the business and attended to household 
affairs. As people dropped in to buy some trifle and gossip 
about the stirring times, or wonder at the incessant coming 
and going of the troops, or talk in whispers of the courage 
and daring of the men who seemed to bear a charmed life, 
Coffey would listen, but speak nothing. Bye and bye there 
were strange stories of money offered by the authorities in 
Mitchelstown for reliable information of Crowley and Mc- 
Clure's movements, and dark hints were thrown out that 
many a one who kept a high head in the parish was no bet- 
ter than Corydon himself. When the money was mentioned 
Coffey's eyes would glisten with avarice— and he kept on lis- 
tening and pondering. Then he began to think that he might 
as well share the blood-money as another. And what he did 
not hear the girls picked up; and when no one was by he 
worried out of them what they had heard. At first they never 
suspected him, but later on they knew. 

With bated breath it was told how the Fenians were to 
meet in the Wood on the next Sunday; how four or five hun- 
dred at the very least were expected to muster ; how Crowleyj 
was in Cork, and how he would return— none knew with what. 
That the likely place for him to stay was in one of the houses 
over the hill beyond. 

Then Coffey made up his mind, stole out of the house in 
the darkness, and sped away to Mitchelstown. To the bar- 
racks he went; he never faltered. The night had fallen, not 
a soul in the streets of the sleeping town. Not a thought of 
the damning treason of his crime stayed him as he sped. He 
would bargain for a good price; already he heard the clink 
and saw the glitter of the blood-money. 

That night he stayed long with Neil Brown, closeted in 

569 



570 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

his private office. Low were the voices— so low that the or- 
derly outside could scarce hear the murmur of the bargain 
and the betrayal. Yes, next Sunday was the day, and the 
dawn was the hour. Neil Brown got what he wanted and Ed- 
ward Coffey slunk away. Back to his home by the gates of 
the Chapel of Shraherla, back to live for aye with a guilty 
secret, and he never once suspected through the after years 
that John Hennessy bore the stigma of his treason and his 
crime. 

Let us be done with this man. Shortly after Coffey was 
paid one hundred pounds in the National Bank at Mitchels- 
town. The money was paid to him by Edward O'Brien, J. 
P., the then manager of the branch. It was his price. He 
also received a small sum for the two girls. It was his bar- 
gain. After this they went to America and have been lost 
sight of. One is still remembered as the "red-haired girl 
named McGrath that used to be in Coffey's years ago." Their 
exact share in this terrible transaction will probably never be 
known. 

But Coffey— the money was ill-gotten; he did not thrive. 
When the girls went away things went from bad to worse 
with him. He sold the public house, retaining for his own 
use only a wretched out-office. He began to drink heavily and 
shrank from mixing with the people. One night, just five or 
six years ago, he lay down on his wretched pallet of straw 
and covered himself with a few rags, his only warmth. Hours 
afterwards the moon shone out, and the light stole in and lit 
upon a clenched hand that lay outside the covering. And the 
beam crept up and up, until it shone white and cold upon a 
rigid face with dropped jaws and sunken eyes and hollow 
cheeks. And a day passed. And then they broke in the door 
and found him as he had been for many an hour, dead— dead 
in a hovel— the man that sold O'Neill Crowley twenty long 
years before. 

It is but fair to state that Coffey's relatives cannot in the 
slightest degree be held culpable for his miserable misdoings. 
At the very time when he turned traitor he was on bad terms 
with his relations, and remained so until his tragic end. He 
was estranged even from his own people, whom he tried to 
wrong, and whose children live to-day, not alone absolutely 
free from any discredit, but highly and justly respected in 
the locality where they live. 



CHAPTER XL 

Wlien Mary Hanley closed the door behind 'Neill Crow- 
ley she darkened the window and again bade him welcome. 
We have met her ; she is married now and is Mary Donovan. 
The events of that night and following morning are graven 
upon her memory. She herself told us the story as she sat 
beside her own fireside, her husband and daughter listening to 
the tale. Let us give it as she spoke it, with all the gentle 
pity of a woman who had sorrowed for a brave man's death. 

*' 'The police would never know ye,' says I, as I looked at 
him sharp; 'but I'd know ye anywhere, no matter how ye'd 
be dressed.' 

*'For he had changed his clothes from the time I saw 
him last and was got up like a laborin' man. When he slept 
in the barn last— for they were about the neighborhood for 
two or three weeks— he was dressed in a pilot cloth jacket 
and in his own good clothes. 

'*He sat down a' wan side of the fire, and they brought 
him a basin of water to bathe his feet. He told me he was 
after comin' all the way from Cork and that he was tired and 
weary. 

''I asked him how was the risin', and he says, 'After to- 
day I think God is wid us, for We were in the same field wid 
the soldiers and they never found us.* Then he says how 
he expected hundreds to meet them in the wood next day. 
He was jaded and worn, and as he drew the bench alongside 
the fire I noticed how his cheeks were sunk and his eyes were 
hollow since he was wid us last. For he often slept in our 
barn before, and often as many as twelve were there for the 
night. Sure they were always welcome, an' me poor brother 
himself had a great heart in the risin', and used to be goin' 
about wid 'em all from place to place. 

** Crowley had a gun and a pistol wid him that night, but 
sure they always had their arms. He said McClure and Kelly 
would call for him early in the mornin', and that he would 
sleep in the ould place as afore. We were talkin' quiet and 
aisy when he pulls out a flag from his breast. It was green 

571 



572 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

silk, and a harp and some writin' on it; but sorra' a bit of 
me remembers what it said, for 'tis a long time ago now. 

''That night he said the Eosary wid us, and no better 
man ever gave it out than poor Crowley. He was always 
civil spoken, an' I never heard a quare word pass his lips. 
He was a good Christian, an' a fine man. But when they'd 
be drillin' in the barn of an evenin', an' when McClure would 
be givin' out the orders, you'd see his heart grow up within 
him, and he'd look as big again. McClure was a wee bit of 
a crayture alongside him, but he had great fire in him, and 
could be terribly cross when he was roused. He often sat 
at the fire of a night talkin' to Crowley, an' I used to watch 
his dark, hard face and bright eyes, and used to notice what 
purty little feet he had. 

''I didn't like to be too near, fearin' they'd think I'd be 
curious like, an', anyhow, I was in terror always that they'd 
be tried for their lives some day or another, an' that they'd 
put me on the green cloth. I couldn't swear the hard word 
agin wqn of them, an' 'twould come bitter to take a wrong 
oath, so 'twas best, says I to myself, not to know anything at 
all. But like to that, sure I got to know everything. 

''Well, after prayers he went to the barn with a kind 
'Good-night' an' 'God save ye.' " 

Even as he spoke it the flying column from Waterford, 
under the command of Mr. Eedmond, R. M., had arrived in 
Mitchelstown, but six miles away, and were quartered in 
the barracks. There were now nearly 500 troops of all arms 
ready to make the fell swoop. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

Crowley had himself lain down and slept soundly. Twelve, 
one, two o'clock, and he hardly changed his position. Will 
nothing wake him? Wake up, man! Can you not hear the 
bugle calls in the barrack square, the hoarse cry of commands, 
the clank of 300 rifles as they are brought to ground, the 
champing of bits, and the clank of the swords in scabbards? 
They number off, these companies of Her Majesty's Sixth 
Regiment of foot— the troops of cavalry, the engineer corps, 
and the police force, forbidding shadows ranging in long lines 
across the barrack yard in the dark morning, and the lanterns 
glimmer and pass along the ranks as the officers inspect the 
arms. Then a few hurried orders, the lines take a different 
formation, the shadows move and swerve and file out through 
the gates. The lights are extinguished, the gates are closed, 
and the double sentinels on the walls watch the moving, sway- 
ing mass melt into the darkness. First rode the advance 
guard, with mounted Constable Johnson as guide. Then fol- 
lowed the main body of cavalry, with Mounted Constable Mer- 
ryman as their guide. Then came the infantry, under the 
command of Major Moss, whilst the police brought up the 
rear. In all, over 300 men, well armed and resolute. The 
police had their great coats on and had tucked white handker- 
chiefs under their left shoulder straps to serve as a means 
of identification should the columns be attacked en route. 
For it must be remembered that the authorities expected they 
would have to face many hundreds of men in fierce revolt 
against the Crown. The men in the Sixth had their military 
overcoats strapped across their shoulders, and had the full 
supply of cartridges served out for their Snider rifles. 

Strict silence was ordained; naught was heard but the 
steady tramp, the occasional neigh of a horse or the ring of 
steel bridled chains. On by the Kildorrery road, skirting the 
Kingston demesne, turning to the right at Garen's Cross, then 
on to Corrogurm road, which breaks out opposite Kilclooney 
Wood. On and on, the steady, heavy tread of 300 men march- 
ing through the black night. 

Crowley sleeps on, never knowing his danger. His head 

573 



574 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

is thrown back upon his arm, just as a child rests, dreaming, 
perhaps, of that grave far away in Ballymacoda where sleeps 
his rebel father and his outlawed uncle, the priest who was 
flayed in '98. Or, mayhap, gentler visions— of a pair of ten- 
der eyes that looked down into his in the years gone by, of 
a voice that sung his lullaby when he was a wee, helpless thing ; 
of the vanished hand that lightly stroked his bright brown 
hair. 

What is that? The signal! In a moment he springs to 
his feet, wide awake, listening. 'Tis repeated. He seizes his 
Enfield rifle that lay by his side and looks out. McClure and 
Kelly are there. A hurried word or two, and he passes out 
—out into the night and darkness— out to his death. 



Composed from the Book of Kells, 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Shortly after four o'clock Crowley, M'Clure, and Kelly 
entered the wood and a few moments later the troops deployed 
on to the main road on the other side of the stream. The 
cavalry swept across the wooden bridge which then spanned 
the Ahaphooka, rode at a gallop np the rising ground, lined 
the road which winds along the head of the wood, and formed 
a junction with the numerous police force which, coming on 
cars from Kildorrery, had arrived almost simultaneously. 
Oh, their arrangements were perfectly planned. Then, fol- 
lowing fast, came half a company of the 6th, who surrounded 
the farm houses. The main body of the infantry swarmed 
into the fields from the main road, and took up their position 
on the plateau which commanded the wood from the opposite 
side of the river. The police force which had marched from 
Mitchelstown supported their left. The wood was thus, in the 
space of ten minutes, completely invested. No one man, or 
small body of men, can leave it now. It was just one hour 
and three-quarters since the troops had left the barracks 
behind them. In the darkness lay the grove, silent and for- 
bidding. They knew not how many men were within it, so 
they waited for the dawn. The little river ran between them, 
its waters swollen and flecked with foam. There was not a 
whisper spoken as the soldiers lay down amid the fern and 
furze and looked to their rifles. No sound save the babble of 
the river as it sings its way to the sea. 

The rebels had barely entered the wood when they heard 
the uphill rush of the mounted men. They never dreamed that 
an expedition had set out against them, or that their plans 
for the next morning had been betrayed. They believed it was 
only another raid upon the farm houses suspected of shelter- 
ing them. So they moved deeper into the wood, down toward 
the river at the bottom, and waited. They heard the mounted 
troops halt, and then a challenge and an answer. This was 
the joining of the Kildorrery force with the cavalry. Cau- 
tiously the rebels moved further down, but slanting their steps 
in an easterly direction. Then once more they paused, and 
eagerly they listened. Something in front, the snap of a 

575 



576 



Ibeland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



breech block or the clink of a bayonet made M'Clnre clutch 
Crowley; the soldier's instinct had told him they were sur- 
rounded, their retreat cut off. Then welled up the bitterness 
against their unlmown betrayer, then came the stern resolu- 
tion to render a good account of themselves. They rammed 
home the bullets, for it was the old muzzle-loading Enfield 
rifle they carried ; and stood motionless as the tall trees them- 
selves. Three hundred against three! It was brave odds! 




CHAPTER XIV. 

The minutes passed and, as tlie dawn came, cold and grey, 
eyes were strained towards every opening in the wood. The 
soldiers peered into the deep shadows, and their fears gav^ 
movement and shape to the slender trunks and skeleton 
branches. Slowly lifted the morning mists, and the gloom 
in the wood lightened and lightened. Then the pipe of half- 
awakened birds and the clear note of a lark singing over- 
head. Bye and bye the steel-grey light is shot with the 
crimson dawn, and the trees before them stand out sharp and 
clear. But where— where are the rebels'? 

The three watched and waited, and, with the morning 
light, saw here and there amid the furze the gleam of a red 
coat or the outline of a shako. On the ridge were the prone 
forms of two companies of the 6th; to the right the solid 
ranks of the police in their great coats, lined down to the 
river. A steel girt circle this. 

Then a flash, a puff of smoke, and the ping of a rifle bul- 
let. Crowley had fired the first shot. In rapid succession 
came flashes from the rifles of the other two, and the bullets 
sang amid the British soldiers. Then the rapid answering 
discharge of the Snider s of the military. The balls whistled 
over the insurgents' heads, stripping the bark from the pine 
trees and sundering the withered branches; then the dull 
thud as they buried themselves in the tree trunks. The rifle 
smoke rolled heavily along the ridge of the plateau and hung 
over the slopes where many of the soldiers lay amid the 
bushes. The tongues of fire flashed amid the smoke and the 
valley awoke with the clamor. 

And many a peasant looked out from his cabin in wonder, 
and many a woman arose and crossed herself on that Sabbath 
morning, and prayed for the mother's sons who were fight- 
ing that day for Ireland. And Edward Coffey, in his house 
by the gates of the Chapel of Shraherla, pressed his white 
face against the window-pane and heard the echo of his 
morning's work. 

The soldiers who were stationed around the farm houses 
above the wood now entered the plantation and advanced 

577 



S78 Ireland*s Crown of Thorns and Roses 

cautiously, seeking cover behind the trees as they moved 
forward, for the well-sustained fire of the outlaws completely 
deceived them as to the force they were coping with. Steadily 
they advanced, Mr. Eedmond at their head, revolver in hand. 

By this time the three had moved still further to the right, 
loading and firing as they went. This added to the perplexity 
of the military, who could only direct their fire at the parts 
of the wood from which the rebel shots proceeded. The smoke 
from their guns lifted but slowly, and they could not aim with 
any accuracy. Crowley was in advance of the other two and 
was in the act of sighting his rifle when a bullet mangled 
three fingers of the left hand and broke the stock of his piece. 
He staggered from behind his cover, the gun fell from his 
grasp, but he drew his revolver, in the act half turning on 
the soldiery who were now close upon him in the wood, raised 
his weapon— when, with a hoarse cry, he threw up his hands, 
staggered forward a couple of paces, and fell to the ground 
shot through the body. The bullet entered beneath his left 
arm and passed out through his right side. M'Clure, though 
bleeding from a severe wound in the thigh, sprang forward 
to raise him, but seeing that it was all over with his brave 
companion, was about to dash into the river, wade to the 
other side and risk a bold rush between the ranks of infantry 
and police, when Mr. Redmond seized him from behind, and, 
placing the barrel of his revolver to his head, cried out: 
*' Surrender in the Queen's name, I am a magistrate!" 

**And I am a soldier," panted M'Clure, as he leveled his 
own weapon back over his shoulder; but ere he could fire a 
policeman s'truck down his arm with a clubbed rifle and the 
weapon was dashed from his grasp. Kelly, who had seen the 
fall of one of his friends and the capture of the other, essayed 
to escape by creeping along the bank of the river, but soon 
he found himself confronted by a dozen of the 6th who cov- 
ered him with their rifles. Resistance would be madness, so 
he surrendered himself a prisoner of war to Captain Mere- 
dith. 

M'Clure and Kelly were handcuffed and led away. Poor 
Crowley lay where he had fallen. The woods were searched, 
but no trace of another. Then the wonder grew how these 
three men could have fought as they had fought, keeping so 
many trained soldiers at bay. Then wonder grew to pity for 
the man who had fallen, and the soldiers made a rough bier 



The Men Who Died for Ireland 579 

of their rifles and carried him along the river banks and ont 
of the wood, and laid him npon the sloping ground beneath 
Hennessy's house. They placed a great coat under his head, 
and a soldier covered him with another. Then Dr. Segrave, 
the military surgeon, examined him, and saw he had but a 
few short hours to live. The wound was a cruel wound, and 
it brought sure death to O'Neill Crowley that Sunday morn- 
ing. 

''Can I do anything for you!" asked Segrave. Crowley 
raised his dying eyes and whispered: "I would like to see 
a priest before I die." 

To Ballygibbon they hastily despatched Mounted-con- 
stable Merryman, the same as had guided the column from 
Mitchelstown that morning. He was fortunate enough to 
meet Father O'Connell, the curate of Kildorrery, as he was 
proceeding to his church to say early Mass at Shraherla. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Segrave, fearing the clergyman might be 
late in coming, read aloud the prayers for the dying. And 
Crowley never moved, no moan of pain, no muttered curse 
on the dire treachery that had brought his death suddenly 
and swiftly; lying there with his blue eyes half closed, the 
blood that welled from his side froze as it flowed. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Then came Father O'Connell. He knelt on the ground 
beside Crowley and spoke to him. 

"I had two loves," said Crowley, feebly, ''my faith and 
my country, and to-day I die for Ireland." 

Tears were in the priest's eyes as he prayed for the dying 
man and administered the last Sacraments of the Church. 

Then the chapel bell was heard tolling for Mass. How 
often had this man lying there dying heard it in his own 
little village off there behind the hills, away by the wild South- 
ern coast ! He will hear it never again— never again see the 
blue sky above his own fair countryside; never again hear 
the sigh of the distant ocean, or the moan of the winds in the 
ruined watchtowers that stand on his own hillsides. 

Then Father O'Connell left him to read the Mass in fal- 
tering tones and ask his people to pray for the outlaw that 
lay upon the frozen ground a-dying. 

Then came two little girls, and they stood at Crowley's 
feet. And the soldiers, as they leaned on their rifle barrels, 
wondered at their frightened faces and tear-dimmed eyes. 
Crowley saw them and recognized one, the young girl by 
whose side he had prayed only the night before— Mary Han- 
ley, the girl who had so often bade him welcome to her 
father's house, and who now came to say good-bye— an eter- 
nal farewell. Then Crowley spoke. ''Kiss me and pray for 
me," he said to her companion. "Kiss me, child, and pray 
for me," he then said to her he knew. For he asked the 
stranger first, fearing to cast suspicion on the little one in 
whose house he had often been. And they bent over him and 
kissed the forehead now wet with the damp of death. 

"I got up in the mornin' when I heard the firin' in the 
wood, ' ' said Mary Hanley to us twenty-seven years after that 
day, "and when they told me one of the Fenians was shot, 
sure I said, ' 'tis Crowley, 'tis Crowley for certain, for he was 
the best prepared to go, and God was always good to the 
poor Fenians. I promised to pray for him then, an' God 
knows I did many a day since ; but 'tis hard to think how I 
:was so frightened wid the sogers an' forgot to ask hmi to 

580 



The Men Who Died for Ireland 581 

pray for me; for, God be praised, I know he has long ago 
passed the gates." 

Neill Brown requested John Hennessy, who was arrested 
the moment he came forth to ascertain the cause of the firing, 
to prepare a room in his house for the dying man. Hen- 
nessy asserts to the present day that he was getting a bed- 
room ready when four policemen placed O'Neill Crowley 
upon a door and bore him through the yard past his house. 
The magistrate said he had altered his intention and had 
decided to bring the dying man— to Coffey's! Slowly down 
the road on to the crossroads, where it was found Dr. Rogers, 
the medical officer to the Kildorrery Dispensary, had arrived 
in his gig. Then it was finally arranged to convey Crowley 
straight to Mitchelstown, and the same constable, Merryman, 
was sent forward to prepare a bed in the bridewell. As 
Crowley was lifted into the doctor's trap a young officer 
standing by offered him his flask and begged him to drink. 
A smile for the moment hovered over the drawn face of the 
dying outlaw, and he faltered— * 'I thank you, but you have 
given me all I want to-day. ' ' His head fell back with a moan 
as the car started, and when on the road to Mitchelstown Dr. 
Rogers found he was returning with the dead. 

When they bared the dead man in the Bridewell they 
found suspended from his neck a silver medal of the Immacu- 
late Conception. It was strangely bent, and when they threw 
his clothes across a rail a flattened bullet fell to the floor. 
It had struck him full in the breast, but the tiny medallion 
worn in honor of the Mother of Sorrows had stayed a mes- 
senger of death. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The officers commanding the troops drew up an official 
account of the affair on that same evening, and Major Phillip 
Moss deposed that the stand made by those three betrayed 
rebels was a gallant and a stubborn one. During the combat 
he believed that forty men, at least, were in the wood, the 
fire was so well sustained. " If, " said he, ' ' every man who 
took up arms against the Crown was as bold as 'Neill Crow- 
ley there would be gaps in the muster roll of many a British 
regiment to-day." So said these soldiers who, whatever they 
were or whatever they be, can recognize the daring and the 
worth of a brave foeman. 

Kelly was a native of Kinsale, and in appearance was 
short in stature, light and active, a man of exceedingly gen- 
tle nature and good manners. He was a printer by trade, and 
had been to Canada, where he worked at his business, re- 
turning to the Old Land when duty called him. Together with 
McClure he stood his trial for high treason; both were sen- 
tenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The American 
Government was firm in its demand for McClure 's release. 
He was a citizen of their nation, and they would not submit 
to his execution. He was given up and lives to-day in this 
glorious American country, ''The land of the free and the 
home of the brave." Kelly's sentence was commuted, and 
he was released after some years of harsh imprisonment. 

The body of O'Neill Crowley was removed to the Work- 
house, there to await an inquest. His sister came from 
Ballymacoda, and not recognizing the clothes they showed her 
as her dead brother's, the police endeavored to retain them. 
Seeing that they might prove the means of implicating some 
people who had assisted her brother, she firmly insisted, and 
they were finally handed over to her. So was the silver 
medal that had stopped the bullet. At the inquest it was 
claimed by a gipsy, who was a private in the 6th that it was 
he who had ''brought down the rebel," but the "honor" was 
disputed by Sergeant Tillbrook of the same regiment, who 
declared that it was he who had fired the fatal shot. 

The immense crowds that waited outside the Workhouse 

582 



The Men Who Died for Ireland 583 

after the inquest had concluded grew impatient, and they 
broke down the gates and brought the cofi&n forth and placed 
it in the hearse. 

And from Mitchelstown to Fermoy, and from Fermoy to 
Ballymacoon, nigh thirty miles, the funeral procession 
wended its way. Crowds of silent men and weeping women 
joined it at every crossroad ; and they brought white flowers 
and laid them upon the coffin. Such a strange, weird sight, 
this body of Irishmen and Irishwomen, marching on and on, 
gathering as they went, until, as the shades of night were 
falling, they laid him down to rest beside the man after whom 
he was named— the priest who was scourged in '98. 

And then the earth rattled on his coffin, and many a sob 
was heard, and many a strong man wept. 

Earth to earth. Ashes to ashes. The old, old story. 

A last prayer, and the vast crowd melts away, leaving 
there, sleeping his last sleep in the cold earth, one who had 
loved so fondly and given his life-FOR IRELAND. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 





ohiA^ii^ UAH^^t^^^^nyf 



Ireland's Uncrowned Kino 



SECTION VI. 



IRELAND'S 

GREAT CONSTITUTIONAL 

BATTLE FOR LEGISLATIVE 

INDEPENDENCE 



T. P. O'CONNOR, M. P. 

CONTAINING 

HISTORY OF THE PARNELL MOVEMENT— INTRODUCTION 

OF THE FIRST HOME RULE BILL— CHARACTER 

SKETCHES OF PARNELL, DAVITT, DILLON, 

O'BRIEN, SEXTON, AND OTHERS— 

THE UNITED IRISH LEAGUE 



585 



IRELAND'S 

GREAT CONSTITUTIONAL 

BATTLE FOR LEGISLATIVE 

INDEPENDENCE. 

BY T. P. O'CONNOR, M. P. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE STRUGGLE FOB HOME EULB. 

On November 23, 1867, Allen, Larkin and O'Brien were 
executed in front of Salford gaol. A short time afterwards 
their bodies were buried in quicklime, in unconsecrated 
ground, within the precincts of the prison. ^ 

It is impossible, even after the considerable mterval that 
has elapsed, to forget the impression which this event pro- 
duced upon the Irish people. In most of the towns m Ireland 
vast multitudes walked in funeral processions through the 
streets to testify the terrible depths of their grief. A few 
days after the execution, Mr. T. D. Sullivan wrote the poem 
with the refrain uttered from the dock, "God Save Ireland!" 
and wherever in any part of the globe there is now an 
assembly of Irishmen, social or political-a concert m Dublin, 
a convention at Chicago, or a Parliamentary dinner in Lon- 
don-the proceedings regularly close with the smgmg of 
*'God Save Ireland." 

To one Irishman, then a youth, living m the country- 
house of his fathers, and deeply immersed in the small con- 
cerns of a squire's daily life, the execution of the Manchester 
martyrs was a new birth of political convictions. To him, 
brooding from his early days over the history of his coun- 
try, this catastrophe came to crystallize impressions into con- 
victions, and to pave the way from dreams to action. It was 
the execution of Allen, Larkin and O'Brien that gave Mr. 
Parnell to the service of Ireland. 

An indirect effect of all these startling occurrences was 
to force the attention of the English people and their Parlia- 

587 



588 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ment upon the Irish Question. In other words, the evils that 
had been allowed to eat out the vitals of Ireland for so long 
a period amid apathy tempered by scoffs, began to attract 
attention when Irishmen abandoned the paths of constitu- 
tional and tranquil agitation, and sought remedy in con- 
spiracy and force. By several circumstances the Irish Church 
was pushed to the front, the Irish Members began to actively 
discuss it in Parliament, and finally, as everybody knows, af- 
ter a fierce struggle and a General Election, the Church was 
disendowed and disestablished. 

This great reform turned attention once more to Par- 
liamentary methods; the spirit of apathy, which had given 
the fruits of electoral contests without care or regret to the 
first adventurer, was broken, and people began to think again 
that it was of some importance whether an honest man or a 
rogue should be sent to Westminster to represent Ireland. 
The awakening of Ireland from the long slumber since 1845 
had begun, and the awakening of Ireland means the revival of 
an agitation for self-government. Another movement was 
destined to add a new and even more potent force to the grow- 
ing cause of Home Rule. Though the Church Question had 
been pushed to the front, the Land Question still retained its 
place as the supreme issue to the majority of the population. 
Throughout the country mass meetings were held, and the de- 
mand of the farmers was put forward with thunderous em- 
phasis. The demand was for the ** Three F's"— fixity of 
tenure, free sale and fair rent ; and the farmers had heard this 
demand advocated so often, had shouted themselves hoarse by 
so many hillsides in uttering it, had been so stimulated and 
encouraged by the sight of their battalions in regular array, 
Sunday after Sunday, and in county after county, that by the 
time Parliament met they regarded the ' ' Three F 's " as hav- 
ing already passed from the region of popular platforms to 
that of Parliamentary debates and of statute law. 

The introduction of Mr. Gladstone's Bill was the mourn- 
ful awakening that came to all these splendid dreams, for 
the measure of the Prime Minister stopped far short indeed 
of the Three F's. The sentimental forces which had been 
gathering in such might in favor of self-government were 
now materially increased by the accession of the mighty bat- 
talions of the disillusioned and disappointed farmers of the 
country. 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 



689 



But the foundation of the Home Rule movement, curiously 
enough, was laid, not in obedience to the impulse of the masses 
of the people, but in the rancour of a small and a defeated 
minority of the population. The Disestablishment of the 
Church had brought back a certain proportion of the Prot- 
estant population to that spirit of nationality which had 
found its most eloquent advocates in the exclusively Protes- 
tant Parliament of the ante-Union days. A certain number 
of very moderate gentlemen of the Catholic faith saw m a 
movement which Protestant Conservatives were able to sup- 
port, elements which need not alarm the most milk-and-water 
adherents to the Doctrine of Nationality. There were more 
stable elements in constitutional agitators who had fought 
doggedly on for a Native Parliament through the long eclipse 
of national faith between 1855 and that hour, like Mr. A. M. 
Sullivan; and in some men-such as Mr. 'Kelly, M. P. for 
Eoscommon-who, appearing under disguised names, sought 
after the breakdown of their efforts to free Ireland by force, 
whether there was any chance of success through Parha- 
mentary action. The latter element took up this attitude at 
that period with a certain amount of trepidation and at some 
personal risk; for the distrust of constitutional agitation and 
the hatred of constitutional agitators still survived among 
the relics of Fenianism, and the new movement was looked 
upon by them with the same latent and perilous distrust as 
all its predecessors. The meeting was held on May 19, 1870, 
in the Bilton Hotel, Sackville Street, Dublin. 

At this meeting were present Conservatives as well known 
as Mr. Purdon, then Conservative Lord Mayor of Dublin; Mr. 
Kinahan, who had been High Sheriff, and Major Knox, pro- 
prietor of the Irish Times, a Conservative organ; nor should 
the name be omitted of a gentleman who was for a consider- 
able time to play a prominent part in the new movement- 
Colonel, then Captain, Edward R. King-Harman. Mr.^ Butt 
was the chief speaker, and on his proposition, and without 
a dissentient voice the resolution was passed. 

"That it is the opinion of this meeting that the true remedy 
for the evils of Ireland is the establishment of an Irish Par- 
liament with full control over our domestic affairs." 

A new organization was founded under the name of the 
"Home Government Association of Ireland." Before long 
the movement spread with the rapidity which always comes 



500 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

to movements founded on indestructible aspirations. Now, 
just as in 1843, the people had only to see a movement in 
favor of self-government to flock enthusiastically to its 
ranks. Then the Prime Minister had passed another meas- 
ure which transcended in importance any other of the Great 
Acts which made his first Premiership so momentous an 
epoch in the resurrection of Ireland. This was the Ballot 
Act. For the first time in his history the Irish tenant could 
vote without the fear of eviction, with the attendant risks of 
hunger, exile or death. The Ballot Act was an act of emanci- 
pation to the Irish tenant in a sense far more real than the 
Emancipation Act of 1829. From the passage of that his- 
story, the real voice of Ireland had some opportunity of mak- 
ing itself heard. The new force advanced against all oppo- 
nents, and every constituency that had its choice declared 
with unfaltering fidelity in favor of the National candidate. 

In four bye-elections the Home Rule candidates triumphed 
over every obstacle. The struggle between Whiggery and 
Home Eule was now over. Ireland had definitely declared 
for the new movement. This will be the place to tell the end 
of Judge Keogh. In the year 1878 the sensational rumor 
reached Dublin that he had developed symptoms of insanity 
in Belgium, whither he had been removed for the benefit of 
his health, and that he had attempted to kill his attendant 
and himself. The rumor proved correct. From this period 
forth he seems never to have recovered full possession of his 
senses, and gradually sank. He was removed to Bingen, and 
there died on September 30, 1878. An Englishman with char- 
acteristic appreciation of Irish character, is said to have 
placed a stone over his remains with the inscription, " Justum 
et tenacem propositi virum." The country which he had be- 
trayed and ruined, on the other hand, congratulated itself 
in not having received his remains. Indeed, some desperate 
spirits had resolved that the remains should never rest in 
hallowed Irish ground; a plot was complete for seizing the 
body during the funeral and throwing it into the Liffey. 



CHAPTER 11. 

ISAAC BUTT, FIRST LEADEE OP THE HOME RULE MOVEMENT. 

Isaac Butt, the leader of the new movement, was the son 
of a Protestant clergyman of the North of Ireland. The 
place of his birth was near the Gap of Barnesmore, a line 
of hills which is rarely if ever without shadow— not unlike 
Butt's own life. It was one of his theories that people born 
amid mountain scenery are more imaginative than the chil- 
dren of the plains. His own nature was certainly imaginative 
in the highest degree, with the breadth and height of imag- 
inative men, and also with the doubtings, despondency and 
the dread of the Unseen. 

For many years he stood firmly by the principles of 
Orange Toryism, and he had the career which then belonged 
to every young Irish Protestant of ability. He went to Trin- 
ity College, which at the time presented large prizes, and 
presented them to those only who had the good luck to belong 
to the favored faith. Butt's advancement was rapid. He was 
not many years a student when he was raised to a Professor- 
ship of Political Economy. When he went to the Bar his suc- 
cess came with the same ease and rapidity. He was but 
thirty-one years of age and had been only six years at the 
Bar when he was made a Queen's Counsel. In politics, how- 
ever, he had made his chief distinction. It will be remem- 
bered that when O'Connell sought to obtain a declaration in 
favor of Repeal of the Union from the newly emancipated 
Corporation of Dublin, Butt was selected by his co-religion- 
ists, young as he was, to meet the Great Liberator, and his 
speech was as good as could be made on the side of the main- 
tenance of the Union ; and many a year after, when he had be- 
come the leader of a Home Rule Party, was quoted against 
him by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, the Irish Chief Secretary of 
the period. 

Of great though irregular industry, deeply devoted to 
study, with a mind of large grasp and a singular retentive 
memory, he was intimately acquainted with all the secrets of 
his profession; and throughout his life was acknowledged to 
be a fine lawyer. He represented in Parliament both You- 
ghal in his native county and Harwich in England. His en- 

591 



592 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

trance into Parliament aggravated many of his weaknesses. 
It separated him from his profession in Dublin, and thereby 
increased his already great pecuniary difficulties. His char- 
acter in many respects was singularly feeble. Some of his 
weaknesses leaned to virtue's side, and many of the stories 
told of him suggest a resemblance to the character of Alexan- 
der Dumas pere. He borrowed largely and lent largely, and 
often in the midst of his sorest straits lavished on others the 
money which he required himself and which often did not 
belong to him. Throughout his life he was, as a consequence, 
pursued by the bloodhound of vast and insurmountable debt. 
At least once he was for several months in a debtors' prison, 
and there used to be terrible stories— even in the days when 
he was an English member of Parliament— of unpaid cabmen 
and appearances at the police courts. 

But he was a man of supreme political genius ; one of those 
whose right to intellectual eminence is never questioned, but 
willingly conceded without effort on his side, without opposi- 
tion on the part of others. The irregularities of his life shut 
him out from official employment, and he saw a long series 
of inferiors reach to position and wealth while he remained 
poor and neglected. There is a considerable period of his life 
which is almost total eclipse. There came an Indian Summer 
when he returned to the practice of his profession in Ireland, 
and once more joined in the political struggles of his country- 
men. Mr. Gladstone's Dissolution of 1874 came upon Butt 
with the same bewildering surprise as upon so many other 
people. That election found him in a cruel difficulty. On the 
one hand, the country was beyond all question with him; he 
knew that he could count on the masses to vote in favor of 
self-government as securely as every other popular leader 
who has ever been able to make the appeal. The majority of 
the constituencies were ready, he knew, to return Home Eule 
candidates; and thus the general election afforded him the 
opportunity of creating a greater Home Eule party, but, on 
the other hand, elections cannot be fought without money; 
elections were dearer then even than they are now, and Butt 
wanted to fight, not a seat here and there, but a whole na- 
tional campaign ; for three-fourths of the constituencies could 
be won by a Home Rule candidate if a Home Rule candidate 
could be brought forward. For so immense a work he had 
nothing to fall back on but a few hundred pounds in the funds 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 593 

of the Home Rule Association, and lie himself was at one of 
his recurrent periods of desperate need. He was arrested 
for debt on the very morning of the day, when, learning of 
the dissolution, he was making his plan of campaign, though 
the matter was arranged in some way or other, he had to fly 
to England, and this prevented him from exercising that per- 
sonal supervision over the General Election which is abso- 
lutely required from the leader of a movement. Butt could 
only adopt, under the circumstances, a policy of compromise, 
and make the best out of bad, but inevitable material. Where 
there was a real and genuine Home Eule candidate ready to 
come forward, and able to bear the expenses of an election 
contest. Butt fought the seat. In this way he was able to 
bring into public life many earnest men who had for years 
found it impossible to take any Parliamentary part in rescu- 
ing the country. His party contained A. M. Sullivan, Mr. 
Bigger, Mr. Richard Power, Mr. Sheil and several others, 
who were really devoted to the National cause. On the other 
hand he had to accept, in constituencies, where he had not 
the men or the money to fight, the ''Deathbed repentance,'* 
as it was called, of men who had grown gray in the service of 
one or other of the English parties. These time-worn Whigs 
or Tories— such as Sir Patrick O'Brien and Sir George Bow- 
yer— oT course swallowed the Home Rule pledge. Some of 
the new men were little better. The race of Rabagas had 
been scotched but not killed, and among Butt's recruits was 
a certain proportion of lawyers, who were as ready as any of 
their predecessors to sell themselves and their principles to 
the highest bidder. Many of them have since received office ; 
all of the tribe have expected and asked it. It was, then, a 
very mixed party Butt had gathered around him— a party of 
patriots and of place hunters, of men young, earnest and 
fresh for struggle, and of men physically exhausted and mor- 
ally dead— a party of life-long Nationalists and of veteran 
lacqueys. There was a tragic contrast between such a party 
and the renewed and sublime and noble hopes of the nation. 
Of the 103 Irish members, sixty were returned pledged to vote 
for the entire rearrangement of the legislative relations be- 
tween the two countries. 



CHAPTER lit. 

tJNSUITABILITY OF BUTT AS LEADER. 

Such was the party; and now how was it with the leader? 
His weakness with regard to pecuniary matters has been al- 
ready touched upon; he had, besides, all the other foibles, as 
well as the charms, of an easy-going, good-natured, pliant 
temperament. Though his faults were grossly exaggerated— 
for instance, many intimates declare that they never saw 
him, even during the acquaintance of years, once under the 
influence of drink— he had, unquestionably, made many sac- 
rifices on the altars of the gods of indulgence. It may be that, 
with him, as with so many others, the pursuit of pleasure was 
but the misnomer for the flight from despair. He was all his 
life troubled by an unusually slow circulation, and it may be 
that the central note of his character was melancholy. In his 
early days he was a constant contributor to the Dublin Uni- 
versity Magazine and his tales have a vein of the morbid 
melancholy that runs through the youthful letters of Alfred de 
Musset. Allusion has been already made to his imaginative- 
ness; this imaginativeness did much to weaken his resolve. 
Curious stories are told of the superstitions that ran through 
his nature. Though a Protestant, he used to carry some of the 
religious symbols— medals, for instance— which Catholics use, 
and he would not go into a law court without his medals. There 
are still more ludicrous stories of his standing appalled or de- 
lighted before such accidents as putting on his clothes the 
wrong way, and other trivialities. Then, the demon of debt, 
which had haunted him all his life, now stood menacing him 
behind. He had just re-established himself in a considerable 
practice when he again entered Parliament, and membership 
of Parliament is entirely incompatible with the retention of 
his entire practice by an Irish barrister. He was, through- 
out his leadership, divided between a dread dilemma; either 
he had to neglect Parliament, and then his party was endan- 
gered, or neglect his practice, and then bring ruin on himself 
or a family unprovided for, deeply loving and deeply loved. 
There is no Nemesis so relentless as that which dogs pecuni- 
ary recklessness ; the spendthrift is also the drudge ; and in his 

594 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 595 

days of old age, weakness and terrible political responsibili- 
ties, Butt had to fly between London and Dublin, to stop up 
o 'nights, alternately reading briefs and drafting Acts of Par- 
liament; to make his worn and unwieldy frame do the double 
work, which would try the nerves and strength of a giant with 
the limber joints and freshness of early youth. At this period 
Butt's frame was worn, though to outward appearances he 
was still vigorous. The hand of incurable disease already 
held him tight and the dark death, of which he had so great a 
horror, was not many years off ; finally, in 1874, he was sixty- 
one years of age. On the other hand, he had great qualities 
of leadership. He was unquestionably a head and shoulders 
above all his followers, able though so many of them were,, 
and was, next to Mr. Gladstone, the greatest Parliamentarian 
of his day. Then he had the large toleration and the easy 
temper that make leadership a light burden to followers ; and 
the burden of leadership must be light when— as in an Irish 
party— the leader has no offices or salaries to bestow. And, 
above all, he had the modesty and the simplicity of real great- 
ness. Every man had his ear, every man his kindly word and 
smile, and some his strong affection. Thus it was that Butt 
was to many the most lovable of men ; and more than one po- 
litical opponent, impelled by principle to regard him as the 
most serious danger to the Irish cause, struck him hard, but 
wept as he dealt the blow. 

This sketch of the character of Butt will show the points 
in which he was unsuitable for the work before him. He was 
the leader of a small party in an assembly to which it was 
hateful in opinion and feeling and temperament. A party in 
such circumstances can only make its way by audacious ag- 
gressiveness, dogged resistance, relentless purpose; and for 
such Parliamentary forlorn hopes the least suited of leaders 
was a man whom a single groan of impatience could hurt, and 
one word of compliment delight. 

The history of Butt's attempts to obtain land or any other 
reform in Ireland from the Imperial Parliament was the same 
as that of so many of his predecessors. Year after year, ses- 
sion after session, there was the same tale of Irish demand 
mocked at, denounced with equal vigor by the leaders of both 
the English parties alike, and then rejected in the division 
lobbies by overwhelming English majorities. 

Butt was very much pained and disappointed by this uni- 



596 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

versal rejection of all his proposals, and began to have 
gloomy forebodings as to the success of his policy. Inti- 
mately acquainted as Butt was with the working of the Land 
Act of 1870, he probably knew very well that a crisis was in- 
evitable—such as came upon Ireland in 1879. And possibly, 
in one of those moments of gloom and depression with which 
he was too familiar, he may have anticipated an hour when 
there would come the same tragic and terrible close to his 
agitation which had wound up the career of O'Connell— a 
country not free and prosperous, but once more tight in the 
grip of hunger, and more helpless than ever against oppres- 
sion. To preach patience to a people under such conditions 
was to mock a starving man with honeyed words. 

There was, however, another and a graver danger to the 
success of Butt's movement. Butt knew well that as time went 
on he was bound to lose a certain proportion of such a 
party. When there is on the one side a certain number of 
men willing to sell themselves, and on the other a Government 
with vast resources and occasional need for the services of 
a corrupt Irishman, the moment when the two will come to 
a bargain is a matter of mutual arrangement. The Home 
Eule Party had not been many years in existence when two 
or three of its members had accepted place, and there was 
not the least doubt that others were willing. Then, apart 
from the want of pence, which was driving several of Butt's 
followers into office-seeking, the party was suffering from 
that hope deferred which depresses and then disintegrates 
political bodies. Session passed after session, motion after 
motion, bill after bill, and still no advance was made. Then 
the party, drawn from elements so heterogeneous as Colonel 
King-Harman and Mr. Gray, Sir Patrick O'Brien and Mr. 
Eichard Power, could not be held in any strict bonds of dis- 
cipline. Butt was exceedingly anxious to get the party to act 
together as a party on the great questions which divided the 
two English parties; all his efforts in this direction failed. 
In the Parliament of 1874, it gave Sir Stafford Northcote very 
little concern if Colonel King-Harman voted in favor of 
Home Rule, after the annual and academic discussion, when 
the Irish were put down by a combination of all the English 
parties in the House, for in all English party divisions he was 
secure of Colonel King-Harman 's vote, as though he had not 
corrupted the general purity of his Conservatism by the 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 597 

heresy of Home Rule. And, similarly, even Lord Hartington 
might excuse the occasional error of an expectant Whig like 
Mr. Meldon, when Mr. Meldon's vote against the Tories was 
as certain as his desire for a place. 

Butt fully grasped this truth of Parliamentary tactics, but, 
of course, was unable to get men to act as an Irish party :who 
were bound by corrupt hopes or party predilections to give 
their first allegiance to an English party and an English 
leader. Thus his whole policy was founded on sand. All 
these various causes, working together, had produced in the 
Irish party of 1874 disorganization, depression, the break- 
down of the barriers of shame among the corrupt, the sealing 
up of the fountains of hope among the pure. The period of 
dry-rot had set in. 

In the light of subsequent events, it is now easy to see the 
dread abyss to which the Home Rule Party was once more 
bringing Ireland. The accession of a Liberal Ministry would 
have immediately completed the disaster which the defeat of 
Butt's proposals had begun. At least half the party would at 
once have become applicants for office, and probably a consid- 
erable number would have realized their wishes. The re- 
mainder would gradually have sunk deeper and deeper into 
a position of obedience to the English whips, and Irish na- 
tional interests would once more have been made absolutely 
subservient to the interests of a single English party, to the 
convenience of Ministers, and to the opportunities of an over- 
worked, listless and generally hostile House of Commons. The 
first result of this state of things would have been to break 
down once more all faith in Parliamentary agitation. A por- 
tion of the people would have found some hope for the redress 
of intolerable grievances in another resort to revolutionary 
methods. The majority, following the precedent of the period 
immediately subsequent to Keogh's betrayal, would in the 
cynicism begotten of blighted hope, once more have chosen bad 
or good men, honest patriots or self-seeking knaves, in the 
spirit of chance and of caprice. This downfall of constitu- 
tional agitation would have been made the more disastrous 
by events which at this moment were hurrying upon Ireland. 
The year 1879, as will presently be seen, brought one of those 
crises which were bound to recur in Ireland as long as its land 
system remained unreformed. Famine would have followed 
the distress of 1879, as it followed the blight of 1846. The 



598 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

country, without an honest and energetic Parliamentary rep- 
resentation, would have been left at the mercy of the igno- 
rance, and the flippant levity of English Ministers, and Ire- 
land, once more on the threshold of a successful movement, 
would have been dragged back for another generation into the 
slough of hunger, eviction, dishonest representatives, and 
futile insurrection. 

The men and the methods that warded off this catastrophe 
were chosen with the ironical capriciousness of destiny. The 
one was a man already advanced in years, without the small- 
est trace of oratorical ability, without culture, with no politi- 
cal experience wider than that to be acquired on a water board 
or a town council. The other, at this time at least, was a 
young and obscure country gentleman, who had given no 
pledges to the political future save those of a very unsuccess- 
ful election contest, and two or three stumbling and very 
ineffective attempts at public speech. 

On the night of April 22, 1875, the House of Commons was 
engaged in the not unaccustomed task of passing a Coercion 
Bill for Ireland. Mr. Butt, for some reason or other, thought 
it desirable that the progress of the measure on this evening 
should be slow, and he asked a member of his party, who was 
still young to the House, to speak against time. * ' How long? ' ' 
asked the member of his leader, ^' would you wish me to 
speak?" ''A pretty good while," was Mr. Butt's reply. Mr. 
Biggar, who was the member appealed to, gave an interpreta- 
tion of this mot d'ordre far larger than probably Mr. Butt 
had ever imagined or intended. It was five o 'clock when Mr. 
Biggar rose, it was five minutes to nine when he sat down. 

Let us quote Hansard for a description of the scene; its 
unconscious humor and significance will be interesting : 

The honorable member proceed to read extracts from the 
evidence before the Westmeath Committee— as was under- 
stood—but in a manner which rendered him totally unintel- 
ligible. At length— 

''The Speaker, interrupting, reminded the honorable gen- 
tleman that the rules required that an honorable member, 
when speaking, should address himself to the Chair. This 
rule the honorable gentleman was at present neglecting. 

''Mr. Biggar said that his non-observance of the rule was 
partly because he found it difficult to make his voice heard 
after speaking for so long a time, and partly because his posi- 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 



599 



tion in the House made it very inconvenient for him to read 
his extracts directly towards the Chair; he would, however, 
with permission, take a more favorable position. 

''The honorable member accordingly, who had been speak- 
ing from below the gangway, removed to a bench nearer to 
the Speaker's chair, taking with him a large mass of papers, 
from which he continued to read long extracts, with comments. 

''At length the honorable member said he was unwilling 
to detain the House at further length, and would conclude by 
stating his conviction that he had proved to every impartial 
mind that the Government had made out no case for the main- 
tenance of this monstrous system of coercion, and that their 
proposal was perfectly unreasonable. The honorable gentle- 
man, who had been speaking nearly four hours, then moved 
his amendment!" 




sc„,p.„e o. wi„dow^^...J;;.^C!,«=^«{S'^^S^''' '""^' ""• 



CHAPTER IV. 

JOE BIGGAR AND HIS ''aCTIVI 

Neither Mr. Butt, nor the House of Commons, nor Mr. 
Biggar himself could possibly have foreseen the momentous 
place which this night's work was destined to hold in all the 
subsequent history of the relation between England and Ire- 
land. It was on this night that the policy was born which 
has since become known to all the world— the policy known as 
"obstruction" by its enemies and as the "active policy" by 
its friends. 

There were few men of whom friends and enemies formed 
so different an estimate as Mr. Biggar. The feelings of his 
friends and intimates was affectionate almost to fanaticism. 
When there were private and convivial meetings of the Irish 
Party, the effort was always made to limit the toasts to the 
irreducible minimum, for talking has naturally ceased to be 
much of an amusement to men who have to do so much of it 
in the performance of public duties. There was one toast, 
however, which was never set down and was always proposed ; 
this toast was the "Health of Mr. Biggar." Then there oc- 
curred a scene which was pleasant to look upon. There arose 
from all the party one long, spontaneous, universal cheer— a 
cheer straight from every man's heart; the usually frigid 
speech of Mr. Parnell grew warm and even more tender; 
everything showed that, whoever stood highest in the respect, 
Mr. Biggar held first place in the affections of his comrades. 
To the outside world there was no man who presented a 
sterner, a more prosaic and harder front than Mr. Biggar. On 
such occasions the other side of his character stood revealed. 
His breast heaved, his face flushed, he dashed his hand with 
nervous haste to his eyes ; but the tears had already risen and 
were rushing down his face. 

To his intimates, then, Mr. Biggar was known as a man 
overflowing with kindness ; of an almost absolute unselfishness. 
A man once bitterly hated Mr. Biggar until he had a conver- 
sation with one of Mr. Biggar *s sisters, and found that she 
was unable to speak of all her brother's kindness with an 
unbroken voice. In the House of Commons, with all his fifty- 
seven years, he was at the beck and call of men who could be 

600 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 601 

almost his grandchildren. Mr. Healy is preparing an on- 
slaught on the Treasury Bench; ''Joe," he cries to Mr. Big- 
gar, ''get me return so-and-so." Mr. Biggar is off to the 
library. He has scarcely got back when the relentless mem- 
ber for Monaghan requires to add to his armory the division 
list in which the perfidious Minister has recorded his infamy, 
and away goes Mr. Biggar to the library again. Then Mr. 
Sexton, busily engaged in the study of an official report, ap- 
proaches the member for Cavan with a card and an insinuat- 
ing smile, and Mr. Biggar sets forth on an expedition to see 
some of the importunate visitants by whom members of Par- 
liament are dogged. As a quarter to six is approaching on a 
Wednesday evening, and Mr. Parnell thinks it just as well 
that the work of the Government should not go too fast, he 
calls on Mr. Biggar and Mr. Biggar is on his legs, filling in the 
horrid interval— -Heaven knows how. The desolate stranger, 
who knows no member of Parliament, and yearns to see the 
House of Commons at work, thinks fondly of Mr. Biggar, and 
obtains a ticket of admission. He is seen almost every night 
surrounded by successive bevies of ladies— young and old, 
native and foreign— whom he is escorting to the Ladies' Gal- 
lery. Nobody asks any favor of Mr. Bigger without getting 
it. The man who to the outside public appears the most 
odious type of Irish fractiousness is adored by the police- 
men, worshipped by the attendants of the House ; and there is 
good ground for the suspicion that there was a secret treaty 
between him and the late Sergeant-at-Arms, the genial and 
universally popular Captain Gossett, founded on their com- 
mon desire to bring sittings to the abrupt and inglorious end 
of a "count out." 

But this is only one side of his character. His hate was as 
fierce and unquestioning as his love, and he hated all his 
political opponents. He had the true Ulster nature; uncom- 
promising, downright, self-controlled, narrow. The subtleties 
by which men of wider minds, more complex natures, less 
stable purpose and conviction, were apt to palliate their, 
changes were entirely incomprehensible to Mr. Biggar, and the 
self -justifications of moral weakness aroused only his scorn. 
His purpose, too, when once resolved upon, was inflexible. It 
was this inflexibility of purpose that made him so great a 
political force. Finally, he was as fearless as he was single- 
minded. The worst tempest in the House of Commons, the 



602 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

sternest decree that English law could enforce against an Irish 
patriot, and equally the disapproval of his own people, were 
incapable of causing him a moment of trepidation. He said 
many terrible things in the House of Commons; he never 
retracted one syllable of anything he ever said. There is a 
scene in *'Pere Goriot," in which the pangs of the dying and 
deserted father are depicted with terrible force. He is speak- 
ing of his daughters and of their husbands; of the one he 
speaks with the tenderness of a woman's heart; of the other, 
with the ferocity of an enraged tiger. The passage suggests 
the two sides of Mr. Biggar 's nature ; in the depth of his love, 
in the fierceness of his hate, he is the **Pere Goriot" of Irish 
politics. 

A great difficulty meets the biographer of Mr. Biggar at 
the outset. He was not uncommunicative about himself, but 
he did not understand himself, and he much underrated him- 
self. Asked by a friend to write his autobiography, his an- 
swer was: ''I am a very commonplace character." In his 
early days when he used to be asked to make a speech, he 
cheerfully started out on the attempt, having made the pre- 
liminary statement, ''I can't speak a d— d bit." He was born 
in Belfast on August 1, 1828, and was educated at the Bel- 
fast Academy, where he remained from 1832 to 1844. The 
record of his school days is far from satisfactory. He was 
very indolent— at least he says so himself— he showed no 
great love for reading— in this regard the boy, indeed, was 
father to the man— he was poor at composition, and of course 
abjectly hopeless at elocution. The one talent he did exhibit 
was a talent for figures. It was perhaps this want of any 
particular success in learning, as well as delicacy of health, 
which made Mr. Biggar 's parents conclude that he had better 
be removed from school and placed in business. He was taken 
into his father's office, who— as is known— was engaged in 
the provision trade, and he continued as assistant until 1861, 
when he became head of the firm. This part of his career 
may be here dismissed with the remark that he retired from 
trade in 1880, and remained out of business during the re- 
mainder of his life, giving his attention exclusively to the 
Irish movement. 

Mr. Biggar always took an interest in politics, and it will 
not surprise those acquainted with his subsequent career to 
know that he was always on the side which was in a hopeless 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 603 

minority, and which opposed the reigning clique and the es- 
tablished regime. For instance, when the late Mr. McMechan 
sought on one occasion the representation of Belfast he had 
only fourteen supporters in all, and Mr. Biggar was one of the 
fourteen. In 1868, Mr. Biggar had a share in creating the 
curious combination by which Mr. William Johnston, of Bal- 
lykilbeg, was elected by Orange Democrats and Catholic Na- 
tionalists. 

In 1870 Mr. Biggar made an attempt to get into the Town 
Council, standing for his native ward, which had always been 
regarded as a Tory stronghold. He was well beaten. Mr. 
Biggar received his defeat with the declaration that he would 
fight the ward on every occasion until he became its member. 
In the following year he again stood, with the result that he 
was returned at the head of the poll. He had previous to 
this obtained a seat on the Water Board, and he was chairman 
of that body from August, 1869, to March, 1872. Some stormy 
scenes occurred during Mr. Biggar 's tenure of office; for the 
future member for Cavan gave his colleagues some specimens 
of that absolutely irreverent freedom of speech which has 
since alternately shocked and amused a higher assembly. 
There was a meeting in county Antrim for the purpose of 
expressing sympathy with the Queen on the recovery of the 
Prince of Wales ; and whether it was because of his disbelief in 
princes generally, or because he was disgusted with the 
fulsomeness of some of the language employed, Mr. Biggar 
wrote to the newspapers to say that the attendance at the 
meeting did not exceed fifty. When his year of office closed he 
was superseded, and was even refused the customary vote of 
thanks. 

Mr. Biggar 's first attempt to enter Parliament was made 
at Londonderry in 1872. He had not the least idea of being 
successful; but he had at this time mentally formulated the 
policy which he afterwards carried out with inflexible purpose 
—he preferred the triumph of an open enemy to that of a half- 
hearted friend. The candidates were Mr. (now Sir Charles) 
Lewis, Mr. (now Chief Baron) Palles, and Mr. Biggar. At 
that moment Mr. Palles, as Attorney General, was prosecuting 
Mr. Duggan and other Catholic bishops for the part they had 
taken in a famous Galway election, and Mr. Biggar made it 
a first and indispensable condition of his withdrawing from 
(the contest that these prosecutions should be dropped. Mr. 



604 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



Palles refused; Mr. Biggar received only 89 votes, but the 
Castle official was defeated, and lie was satisfied. The bold 
fight he had made marked out Mr. Biggar as the man to lead 
one of the assaults which at this time the rising Home Rule 
Party was beginning to make on the seats of Whig and Tory. 
When the General Election of 1874 came, it was represented 
to Mr. Biggar that he would better serve the cause by stand- 
ing for Cavan. He was nominated, and returned, and mem- 
ber for Cavan he remained for years. 




SciUpture on a Capital: Priest's House, Glendalough: Beranger, i779. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER V. 

CHARLES STEWART PARNELL— HISTORY OF THE PARNELL FAMILY. 

It was not long after the night of Mr. Biggar's four hours' 
speech that a young Irish member took his seat for the first 
time. This was Mr. Parnell, elected for the county of Meath 
in succession to John Martin— a veteran and incorruptible 
patriot who had died a few days before the opening of this 
new chapter in the Irish struggle. 

When the dissolution of February, 1874, came, Mr. Parnell 
wished to stand for Wicklow, but he was then high sheriff 
of the county, and the Government would not allow him to 
qualify himself by resigning. Shortly after, Colonel Taylor's 
acceptance of office as Chancellor of the Duchy in the new 
Disraeli Administration made a vacancy for the county of 
Dublin, and it was deemed advisable to fight the seat. The 
contest was regarded as a forlorn hope, and was known at the 
same time to be necessarily an expensive one. The offer of 
Mr. Parnell to fight the seat at his own expense came at a 
time when there was scarcely a penny in the exchequer of 
the National Party, and the mere fact alone of his willingness 
to bear the burden in such a contest was enough to secure him 
a hearing ; but there were many doubts and fears, and the first 
impression was that if a young landlord, hitherto entirely 
unknown in the national struggle— for the outer, and still 
more, the inner history of this shy, reserved young man, bur- 
ied in his Wicklow estate, was a closed book to everybody in 
the world— if such a man wished to represent a constituency 
it was from no higher motive than social ambition ; and men 
who had become members of Parliament for such reasons 
have left a long record of half-hearted adherence, ending in 
violent hostility to the national cause. At last it was agreed 
that the young aspirant should at least get the privilege of a 
hearing, and he had a personal interview with the Council of 
the Home Rule League. John Martin and Mr. A. M. Sullivan 
were favorably impressed ; the latter undertook to propose his 
adoption at a meeting in the Rotunda and here is his account 
of what followed and of Mr. Parnell 's debut in public life. 

"The resolution which I had moved in his favor having 

605 



606 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

been adopted with acclamation, lie came forward to address 
the assemblage. To onr dismay he broke utterly. He falt- 
ered, he paused, went on, got confused, and pale with intense 
but subdued nervous anxiety, caused everyone to feel deep 
sympathy for him. The audience saw it all and cheered him 
kindly and heartily; but many on the platform shook their 
heads, sagely prophesying that if ever he got to Westminster, 
no matter how long he stayed there, he would either be a 
' Silent Member ' or be known as ' Single-speech Parnell. * ' ' 

Nobody was surprised when, as the result of the election, 
Colonel Taylor was returned by an overwhelming majority. 
If anything were needed to account for the expected result, 
and to encourage hope for a better chance next time, it was 
found in the universal sentiment that the Nationalists had 
been represented by an extremely poor candidate. Then, as 
later, Mr. Parnell had none of the qualities which had hitherto 
been associated with the idea of a successful Irish leader. He 
became one of the most potent of Parliamentary debaters in 
the House of Commons, through his power of saying exactly 
what he meant and his thorough grasp of his ideas and wants. 
But Mr. Parnell had become this in spite of himself. He 
retained to the very last day an almost invincible repugnance 
to speaking; if he could through any excuse be silent, he 
remained silent; and the want of all training before his en- 
trance into political life made him a speaker more than usually 
stumbling. Then, his manner was cold and reserved; he 
seemed entirely devoid of enthusiasm, and he spoke with that 
strong English accent which in Ireland has come to be in- 
evitably associated with the adherents of the English garrison 
and the enemies of the national cause. 

But if the truth were known, Mr. Parnell, upon entering 
upon political life, was reaching the natural sequel of his own 
descent, of his early training, of the strongest tendencies of 
his own nature. It was one of the strongest and most curious 
peculiarities of Mr. Parnell, not merely that he rarely, if ever, 
spoke of himself, but that he rarely, if ever, gave any indica- 
tion of having studied himself. His mind, if one may use 
the jargon of the Germans, was purely objective. There are 
few men who, after a certain length of acquaintance, do not 
familiarize you with the state of their hearts or their stom- 
achs, or their finances; with their fears, their hopes, their 
aims. But no man was ever a confidant of Mr. Parnell. Any 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 607 

allusion to himself by another, either in the exuberance of 
friendship, or the design of flattery, was passed by unheeded ; 
and it was a joke among his intimates that to Mr. Parnell 
the being Parnell did not exist. But from various casual and 
unintentional hints the following may be taken as a fair sum- 
mary of his life and its influences. 

The history of his own family was well calculated to make 
him a strong Nationalist. The family came from Congleton, 
in Cheshire, and it is from this town that one branch, raised 
to the peerage, has taken its title. Thomas Parnell, the poet, 
was one of the race. 

The Parliamentary distinction dates, in the Parnell fam- 
ily, from the early part of the last century. John Parnell was 
member for Maryborough, in the Irish House of Commons, 
one hundred and fifty years ago. He was the son of a judge 
of the Queen's Bench. He died in 1782, and he was immedi- 
ately succeeded by his son John, afterwards Sir John. In 
1787, Sir John was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 
the Red List, in which Sir Jonah Barrington sums up his im- 
pressions of the Irish politicians of his time, he writes oppo- 
site the name of Sir John Parnell tlie one word ' ' Incorrupti- 
ble." He proved his claim to the title by giving up the office 
he had held for seventeen years, and voting steadily against 
the Union. 

Henry Parnell, the son of Sir John, was a member of the 
Irish House of Commons at the same time, and, like his father, 
stood steadily by Grattan and the other advocates of Irish na- 
tionality to the last. Sir John was elected to the United Par- 
liament, but died in the first year of his new position, and 
was immediately succeeded by Henry. Sir Henry Parnell 
was for many years a strong advocate of the rights of his 
fellow countrymen, and was in favor of the abolition of the 
Corn Laws, Short Parliaments, extension of the franchise, 
vote by ballot, and, curiously enough, the abolition of flogging 
in the army and navy, at a period when such doctrines were 
associated with advanced Radicalism. He was Secretary for 
War in Lord Grey's ministry for 1832, and Paymaster of the 
Forces in the Administration of Lord Melbourne and in 1841 
he was created first Baron Congleton. 

John Henry Parnell of Avondale was grandson of Sir 
John Parnell, and nephew of the first Lord Congleton. Mak- 
ing a tour through America while still a young man, he met, 



608 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

at Washington, Miss Stewart. Miss Stewart was the daugh- 
ter of Commodore Stewart, who played an important part in 
the history of the United States. It was he who, in his ship, 
the ' * Constitution, ' ' in the war between England and America 
in 1815, met, fought, beat and captured the two English ves- 
sels, the ''Cyane" and the *' Levant," with the loss of seventy- 
seven killed and wounded among the British, and only three 
killed and ten wounded in his own vessel. It is, perhaps, 
characteristic of the love of legality in his race that he did not 
enter upon this engagement until the British vessels first at- 
tacked, for he had received from a British vessel three days 
before the engagement a copy of the London Times, contain- 
ing the heads of the Treaty of Ghent, as signed by the Min- 
isters of the United States and Great Britain, and said to have 
been ratified by the Prince Regent. After a series of striking 
adventures, Stewart reached home with his vessel. His vic- 
tory excited extreme enthusiasm among the Americans, and 
every form of public honor was bestowed upon him. In Bos- 
ton there was a triumphal procession; in New York the City 
Council presented him with the freedom of the city and a gold 
snuff-box, and he and his officers were entertained at a din- 
ner ; at Philadelphia he was voted the thanks of the Common- 
wealth, and presented with a gold-hilted sword. Congress 
passed a vote of thanks to him and his officers, and struck a 
gold medal and presented it to him in honor of the event. 

Afterwards Commodore Stewart was sent to the Medit- 
erranean, where there was something approaching a mutiny 
amongst the officers under a different commodore. He soon 
came to a definite issue with his subordinates. He ordered a 
court-martial on a marine to be held on board one of his ves- 
sels. The officers preferred to discuss the case at their leisure 
in a hotel in Naples, and there tried and convicted the marine. 
The commodore promptly quashed the conviction and, when 
the Court passed a series of resolutions, put all the command- 
ing officers of the squadron under arrest. The result was the 
complete restoration of order, and the approval of Commo- 
dore Stewart's conduct by the President and the cabinet. 

Admiral Stewart, as he became, lived to a great age, and 
in time had taken a place in the affections of his countrymen 
somewhat similar to that of old Field Marshal Wrangel among 
the Germans a few decades later. He used to be known as 
*'01d Ironsides," and the residence which he purchased in 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 609 

Bordentown was baptized ''Ironsides Park." He was once 
prominently spoken of as a candidate for the Presidency, and 
in less than four months sixty-seven papers pronounced in his 
favor. He was eighty-three years of age when Fort Snmter 
was fired upon. At once he wrote asking to be put into active 
service. "I am as young as ever," he declared, 'Ho fight for 
my country. ' ' But, of course, the offer had to be refused. He 
survived nine years. 

Thomas Sherlock, in his book, "The Life of Charles 
Stewart Parnell," describes the appearance and character of 
Commodore Stewart as follows : 

"Commodore Stewart was about five feet nine inches high, 
and of a dignified and engaging presence. His complexion 
was fair, his hair chestnut, eyes blue, large, penetrating, and 
intelligent. The cast of his countenance was Eoman, bold, 
strong and commanding, and his head finely formed. His 
control over his passions was truly surprising, and under the 
most irritating circumstance his oldest seaman never saw a 
ray of anger flash from his eye. His kindness, benevolence, 
and humanity were proverbial, but his sense of justice and the 
requisitions of duty were as unbending as fate. In the mo- 
ment of greatest stress and danger he was as cool and quick 
in judgment as he was utterly ignorant of fear. His mind was 
acute and powerful, grasping the greatest or smallest subjects 
with the intuitive mystery of genius." 

It is said that, in many respects, Mr. Parnell bore a strong 
resemblance to the characteristics of his grandfather, whose 
name he bore. In physique he was much less English or Irish 
than American. The delicacy of his features, the pallor of 
his complexion, the strong nervous and muscular system, con- 
cealed under an exterior of fragility, are characteristics of 
the American type of man. Mentally, also, his evenness of 
temper and coolness of judgment suggested an American tem- 
perament. 

Mr. Parnell was born in Avondale, county Wicklow, in 
June, 1846. Curiously enough, nearly the whole of his early 
life was passed in England, and in entirely English surround- 
ings. When he was six years of age he was placed at school 
in Yeovil, Somersetshire. Next, he was under the charge of 
the Eev. Mr. Barton at Kirk-Langley, Derbyshire; next, un- 
der the Rev. Mr. Wishaw, in Oxfordshire ; and finally, he went 
to Cambridge University— the Alma Mater of his father. He 



610 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

did not graduate and probably did not pay any great atten- 
tion to the study of tlie curriculum of the university. 

He was not a man of large literary reading, but he was a 
severe and constant student of scientific subjects, and was 
especially devoted to mechanics. It is said that he used to 
enjoy isolating himself from the enthusiastic crowds that met 
him everywhere in Ireland, and, in a room by himself, delight 
in studying mathematical books. He was a constant reader 
of ''Engineering" and other mechanical papers, and he took 
the keenest interest in all machinery. 

The surroundings of the house in which he was born were 
well calculated to arouse in young Parnell the hereditary 
disposition to strong national opinions. Wicklow, on the 
whole, is the most beautiful and the most historic county in 
Ireland, and Avondale is in the center of its greatest beauties 
and its most historic spots. 

Many of the lessons which these historic spots were calcu- 
lated to teach were reinforced by the servants around the 
family mansion. I have made the remark that it is particu- 
larly difficult to follow the mental history of a man who is 
neither introspective nor expansive ; and it is not from the lips 
of Mr. Parnell himself that one could learn much of his in- 
ternal history. But one day, sitting in his house in Avondale, 
he happened to mention the name of Hugh Gaffney, a gate- 
keeper in Avondale, and retold a story which the gate-keeper 
used to tell him when he was a youth. Gaffney was old enough 
to have seen some of the scenes of the Eebellion ; and one of 
his stories was of a man who was taken by the English troops 
in the neighborhood. The sentence upon him was that he 
was to be flogged to death at the end of a cart. The interpre- 
tation of the sentence by Colonel Yeo— such was the name of 
the commander— was that the flogging was to be inflicted on 
the man's stomach inst ad of on his back. Gaffney saw the 
rebel flogged from the mill to the old sentry box in Eathdrum 
—the town near which Avondale is situated— and heard the 
man call out in his agony, ' ' Colonel Yeo ! Colonel Yeo ! ! " and 
appeal for respite from this torture; and also heard Colonel 
Yeo reject the prayer with savage words; and finally saw 
the man, as he fell at last from sheer exhaustion. When Mr. 
Parnell told the story, in his usual tranquil manner, the 
thought suggested itself to my mind that, at last, I had reached 
one of the great influences that made Mr. Parnell the man 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 611 

he was, and that in this poor gate-keeper was to be found the 
early instructor whose lessons on British rule and its meaning 
imbued the young and impressionable heir of the Parnell name 
and traditions with that love and admiration for British dom- 
ination in Ireland which have characterized his public career. 

Such stories appealed to what was, beyond doubt, the 
strongest feeling, the most positive instinct of Mr. Parnell 's 
nature— his hatred of injustice. He had the loathing of mas- 
culine natures for cruelty in all forms. This feeling, though 
never expressed in words, finds strong manifestation often 
in acts. One of his acts while still the unknown squire, was to 
prosecute a man for cruelty to a donkey. Once, while a very 
important and vital resolution was under discussion at a meet- 
ing of the Irish party called to arrange the plan of the elec- 
toral campaign, the meeting was amused, and a little discon- 
certed to see Mr. Parnell rise with naif unconsciousness, leave 
the chair, and disappear from the room. He was followed by 
a handsome dog, which had been presented to him by his 
friend and colleague, Mr. Corbet; and the meeting had to 
tranquilly suspend its discussions until the lead of the Irish 
people had seen after the dinner of a retriever. It was char- 
acteristic of the modesty and, at the same time, scornfulness 
of his nature, that all through the many attacks made upon 
him by Mr. Forster, and other gentlemen who wear their 
hearts upon their sleeves, he never once made allusion to his 
own strong love of animals ; but to his friends he often ex- 
pressed his disgust for the outrages that, during a portion 
of the agitation, were occasionally committed upon them. 

In 1867 the ideas that had been sown in his mind in child- 
hood first began to mature. His mother was then, as through- 
out her life, a strong Nationalist, and so was at least one of 
his sisters. There is a tradition among the survivors of the 
Literary staff of ''The Irish People" lewspaper of a young 
lady, closely veiled, coming with a contribution to the office of 
the journal during its troubled career. This was Miss Fanny 
Parnell. Many of the Fenian refugees found shelter and pro- 
tection in the house of Mrs. Parnell, and were in this way en- 
abled to escape from the pursuing bloodhounds of the law. 
It was at this epoch that the execution of Allen, Larkin and 
O'Brien took place in Manchester; and this, as has already 
been mentioned, was the turning point in tlie mental history 
of Mr. Parnell and set him irrevocably in favor of Nationalist 
principles. 



612 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

However, it was a considerable time before lie even 
thouglit of entering political life. Like his father, he spent 
some time in travel in America. While there he met with a 
railway accident in company with his brother, John. "The 
best nurse I ever had," said Mr. John Parnell to T. P. O'Con- 
nor in America, * ' was my brother Charlie. ' ' And he then re- 
marked that for weeks his brother had remained night and day 
by his side. 

In 1871 Mr. Parnell returned to Avondale and began the 
life of a country squire. His American blood showed itself in 
a keener sense of the possibilities of his property and of his 
own duties than are usually associated with the Irish land- 
lord. Then, although one could not say he was a joyous man, 
he took a keen interest in life and everything going on around 
him, and could not, under any circumstances, keep from being 
actively occupied in some pursuit. He hunted and he shot like 
those around him ; but, besides this, he set up a saw mill and 
brush factory, and sunk shafts in search of the mineral ore 
in which Wicklow was said to abound. He was a kind and 
generous landlord, and enjoyed the affection of all around 
him. His subsequent history has been told ; and now the nar- 
rative returns to an account of his parliamentary career. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PARNELL AND BIGGAR JOIN HANDS— PROGRESS OF THE '^ACTIVE'* 

POLICY. 

Mr. Biggar and Mr. Parnell brooded for some time over 
the strange spectacle of the impotence that had fallen upon 
the Irish Party. Both men were eager for practical results ; 
and debates, however ornate and eloquent, which resulted in 
no benefit, appeared to them the sheerest waste of time and a 
mockery of their country's hopes and demands. Probably 
they drifted into the policy of "obstruction,'* so called, rather 
than pursued it in accordance with a definite plan originally 
thought out. "When one now looks back upon the task at 
which these two men set themselves, it will appear one of the 
boldest, most difficult and most hopeless that two individuals 
ever proposed to set themselves to work out. 

They set out, two of them, to do battle against 656 ; they 
had before them enemies, who, in the ferocity of a common 
hate and a common terror, forgot old quarrels and obliterated 
old party lines ; while among their own party there were false 
men who hated their honesty and many true men who doubted 
their sagacity. In this work of theirs they had to meet a 
perfect hurricane of hate and abuse ; they had to stand face 
to face with the practical omnipotence of the mightiest of 
modern empires ; they were accused of seeking to trample on 
the power of the English House of Commons, and six cen- 
turies of Parliamentary government looked down upon them 
in menace and reproach. In carrying out their mighty enter- 
prise, Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar had to undergo labors and 
sacrifices that only those acquainted with the inside life of 
Parliament can fully appreciate. Those who undertook to 
conquer the House of Commons had first to conquer much 
of the natural man in themselves. The House of Commons is 
the arena which gives the choicest food to the intellectual van- 
ity of the British subject, and the House of Commons loves 
and respects only those who love and respect it. But the first 
principle of the active policy was that there should be absolute 
indifference to the opinions of the House of Commons, and so 
vanity had first to be crushed out. Then the active policy de- 

613 



614 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

manded incessant attendance in the House, and incessant at- 
tendance in tlie House amounts almost to a punishment. And 
the active policy required, in addition to incessant attend- 
ance, considerable preparation; and so idleness, which is 
the most potent of all human passions, had to be gripped 
and strangled with a merciless hand. And finally there was to 
be no shrinking from speech or act because it disobliged one 
man or offended another ; and therefore, kindliness of feeling 
was to be watched and guarded by remorseless purpose. The 
years of fierce conflict, of labor day and night, and of iron 
resistance to menace, or entreaty, or blandishment, must have 
left many a deep mark in mind and body. ''Parnell," re- 
marked one of his followers in the House of Commons one 
day, as the Irish leader entered with pallid and worn face, 
"Parnell has done mighty things, but he had to go through 
fire and water to do them. ' ' 

Mr, Biggar was heard before Mr. Parnell had made him- 
self known ; and to estimate the character of the member for 
Cavan— and it was a character worth study— one must read 
carefully, and by the light of the present day, the events of 
the period at which he first started on his enterprise. In the 
session of 1875 he was constantly heard of; on April 27 in 
that session he ''espied strangers"; and, in accordance with 
the then existing rules of the House of Commons, all the oc- 
cupants of the five different galleries, excepting those of the 
Ladies' Grallery, had to retire. The Prince of Wales was 
among the distinguished visitors to the assembly on this par- 
ticular evening, a fact which added considerable effect to the 
proceeding of the member for Cavan. At once a storm burst 
upon him, beneath which even a very strong man might have 
bent. Mr. Disraeli, the Prime Minister, got up amid cheers 
from all parts of the House, to denounce this outrage upon its 
dignity; and to mark the complete union of the two parties 
against the daring offender. Lord Hartington rose immedi- 
ately afterwards. Nor were these the only quarters from 
which attack came. Members of his own party joined in the 
general assault upon the audacious violator of the tone of the 
House. Mr. Biggar was, above all things, held to be wanting 
in the instincts of a gentleman. **I think," said the late Mr. 
George Bryan, another member of Mr. Butt's party, "that 
a man should be a gentleman first and a patriot afterwards, ' ' 
a statement which was of course received with wild cheers. 



iRELAND'ti Constitutional Battle 615 

Finally, the case was summed up by Mr. Chaplin. ' '■ The hon- 
orable member for Cavan," said he, ''appears to forget that 
he is now admitted to the society of gentlemen." This was 
one of the many allusions, fashionable at the time— among 
genteel journalists, especially— to Mr. Biggar's occupation. 
It was his heinous offense to have made his money in the 
wholesale pork trade. 

''Heaven knows," says a writer in the "World," "that I 
do not scorn a man because his path in life has led him 
amongst provisions. But though I may unaffectedly honor a 
provision dealer who is a Member of Parliament, it is with 
quite another feeling that I behold a Member of Parliament 
who is a provision dealer. Mr. Biggar brings the manner of his 
store into this illustrious assembly, and his manner, even for a 
Belfast store, is very bad. When he rises to address the House, 
which he did at least ten times to-night, a whiff of salt pork 
seems to float upon the gale, and the air is heavy with the odor 
of the kippered herring. One unacquainted with the actual 
condition of affairs might be forgiven if he thought there had 
been a large failure in the bacon trade, and that the House 
of Commons was a meeting of creditors and the right honor- 
able gentlemen sitting on the Treasury Bench were members 
of the defaulting firm who, having confessed their inability to 
pay ninepence in the pound, were suitable and safe subjects 
for the abuse of an ungenerous creditor. ' ' 

These things are mentioned by way of illustrating the 
marks and symptoms of the time through which Mr. Biggar 
had to live, rather than because of any influence they had 
upon him. On this self-reliant, firm, and masculine nature 
a world of enemies could make no impress. He did not even 
take the trouble to read most of the attacks upon him. Those 
that were made in the House of Commons in his own hearing 
neither touched him nor angered him. The only rancour he 
ever felt against individuals was for the evil they attempted 
to do to the cause of his country. This little man, calmly and 
placidly accepting every humiliation and insult that hun- 
dreds of foes could heap upon him, in the relentless and un- 
tiring pursuit of a great purpose, may by-and-by appear, 
even to Englishmen, to merit all the affectionate respect with 
which he is regarded by men of his own country and prin- 
ciples. The Irish people have long since decided between 
Mr. Biggar and the members of his own party, with whom he 



616 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

was at war. If any one desired to see how far that party is 
removed from the party of to-day, he has but to read the 
descriptions of some of the encounters between the member 
for Cavan and some of his colleagues upon the coercion strug- 
gle of those days. Thus, on one occasion, Mr. McCarthy 
Downing, a so-called Nationalist, went out of his way to com- 
pliment Sir Michael Hicks-Beach on the courtesy with which 
he treated the Irish members when carrying through the 
House a bill destructive of the liberties of their country. 
This was the speech which drew from Mr. Eonayne the grim 
remark that such compliments to the Minister in charge of the 
Coercion Bill reminded him of the shake hands of a murderer 
with his executioner. On another occasion, when Dr. O'Leary 
proposed an adjournment of a stage of a debate on a Coer- 
cion Bill to another day, his own colleagues rose in revolt 
against the unreasonable proposal, and Dr. O'Leary, scared 
and overwhelmed, had to consult the convenience of the gov- 
ernment to accelerate the destruction of his country's liber- 
ties and to withdraw his motion for adjournment. More 
interesting than these collisions with small and now forgotten 
men, was Mr. Biggar's conflict with the leader of his party. 
The contest between these two men is one of the most pic- 
turesque in Parliamentary history. Earely has a struggle 
appeared more unequal. The House of Commons never had 
an opportunity of seeing Butt at his best, but with an 
audience before him sympathetic with his views, he was a 
speaker of a persuasiveness as great as that of Mr. Gladstone 
himself. There was not a resource of the orator, a trick of 
the lawyer, a device of the Parliamentary tactician's art 
unknown to him. He was, indeed, marked out as a leader of 
men in Parliamentary struggles. Mr. Biggar, on the other 
hand, had not one of the gifts that make a great parliamen- 
tarian. He spoke haltingly and with difficulty; his sparse 
education was not improved by reading; he was absolutely 
new to parliamentary, and, practically, to political life. But the 
moral chasm between Biggar and Butt was as wide as the 
intellectual chasm between Butt and Biggar. The relent- 
less self-control in Biggar, the subordination of all his wants 
to his needs, his inflexible courage, and his unshaken per- 
sistence, made him a dangerous competitor for a man of the 
loose habits, of the easy self-indulgent nature, of the weak 
will and capricious purpose of Butt. Biggar was ultimately 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 617 

conqueror in this struggle. Sheer strength of character broke 
down sheer intellectual superiority. The new policy, which 
had been inaugurated by Mr. Biggar in the session of 1875, 
was developed rather than formulated. It began simply in the 
practice of blocking a number of bills in order to bring them 
under the half-past twelve rule, which forbids opposed meas- 
ures to be taken after that hour. It also became the custom 
of either, the member for Cavan or the member for Meade, 
to propose motions for adjournment in various forms when 
half-past twelve was reached, on the ground that proper dis- 
cussion could not take place at so late an hour. Then, inter- 
stices of time which the government would gladly employ for 
advancing some stage of their measures were filled in by the 
Irish members. Thus, for instance, a bill standing for second 
reading would be approaching that stage at twenty minutes 
past twelve at an ordinary sitting, or half -past five on a 
Wednesday. To the horror and disgust of everybody else, 
Mr. Biggar or Mr. Parnell would rise and occupy the time 
between that hour and half-past twelve or a quarter to six, 
when contentious business could no longer be discussed, and 
further consideration of the measure had to be postponed to 
another day. In this manner the two members gradually felt 
their way, became more practiced in speaking, and obtained 
an intimate acquaintance with the rules of the House. 
Throughout all this time, of course, they were harassed by 
interruptions, shouts of '^divide," groans and calls to order; 
and for a time, at least, Mr. Parnell used occasionally to lay 
himself open to effective interruption by his yet immature 
acquaintance with the laws of the Assembly. ''How," said 
a young follower of his to the Irish leader, "are you to learn 
the rules of the House?" "By breaking them," was Mr. 
Parnell 's reply ; and this was the method by which he himself 
gained his information. It was not till the session of 1877 
that Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar became engaged in the pas- 
sionate and exciting scenes which made their names known all 
over the world, and brought the House of Commons definitely 
face to face with the new and portentous force which had 
unmasked itself within the parliamentary citadel. Any one 
who has been a member of the House of Commons will know 
how tremendous is its reserve power. There had been "ob- 
structives," of course, before the time of Parnell and Biggar. 
During the great ministry of Mr. Gladstone, between 1868 



618 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

and 1874, obstruction had been developed to a fine art by 
several of the gentlemen who at this moment held official 
positions under Lord Beaconsfield. Everybody remembers 
how the Church Bill and the Land Bill, the Ballot Bill, and 
the Bill for the abolition of purchase in the army had been 
dogged at every step of their progress by endless and silly 
amendments, by speeches against time, and by countless 
motions for adjournment. It was part of the skillful tactics 
of Parnell and Biggar that their intervention in the debates 
of the House was always rational. They did not indulge in 
any wild declamation, nor make any speeches full of empty 
and purposeless talk. Their plan was to propose amendments 
to the different measures before the House ; and their amend- 
ments were rarely, if ever, open to the charge of irrelevance 
or frivolity. On March 26, 1877, there was a lengthy discus- 
sion on some new clauses of the Prison Bill for the better 
treatment of prisoners. At a little after one o'clock Mr. 
Biggar proposed to report progress. Some eight members, 
who had acted with the '^ obstructives" up to this time, now 
deserted; and, when the division was called, there were in 
favor of the adjournment but 10, while 138 voted against it. 
Motions for adjournment followed each other in rapid suc- 
cession, and, at three o 'clock in the morning, the Government 
gave way. Mr. Butt had watched these proceedings with no 
friendly eye. There was no doubt about his genuineness as 
a Home Euler, but he had been a conservative for many years 
and a friend and associate of the party in power, and he was 
certainly considerably under the influence of its leaders. 
Curiously enough, one of the men who was supposed to have 
the most influence over him was the then Chief Secretary, 
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, though there had never been a Chief 
Secretary who met all demands for Irish reform with rejec- 
tion more uncompromising and more insolent. It is char- 
acteristic of the nature of the two men that it was the atti- 
tude of Hicks-Beach towards Mr. Butt which drove Mr. 
Biggar, as much as anything else, forward into the policy he 
had now adopted. He was asked by Sir Michael to chide his 
supporters, and he consented. It showed a strange want of 
any appreciation of the real facts of the case that the Irish 
leader should have thus interpreted the request addressed to 
him. The recognition of his power came only when it was 
employed in meeting the views of the Ministry, and in yield- 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 



619 



ing to the temper of Parliament; it had received no recogni- 
tion so long as it was used in pressing forward against the 
Ministry, and against the House— demands for the redress 
of the intolerable wrongs of his country. Where was his 
memory gone of the contemptuous rejection for the past three 
years of every one of the proposals that he made with the 
assent of the overwhelming majority of his countrymen? A 
leader who, with such recollections, and such incontestable 
proof of the futility of soft methods, of appeals to the sense 
of justice in English Ministries, and to the reason of Parlia- 
ment, could think of the ''dignity of Parliament,'* and not 
the wrongs of Ireland, ''lacked gall to make oppression bit- 
ter." Mr. Butt, however, threw in his lot with the enemies 
of his country, and attacked his two subordinates with fierce 
anger and reproach. 




Ornament on leather case of Book of Armagh. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER VII. 

FIERCE CONTEMPT OF PARNELL FOR ENGLISH PARTIES — TURBULENT 

SESSIONS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 

Condemned by their own leader, and by the majority of 
their own party, Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar were naturally 
the more hated by the House of Commons, and their conduct 
was more bitterly resented ; and the resolve to put them down 
grew more vehement and more passionate. It was on the 
South African Bill that the long-pent-up storm burst forth 
with tempestuous violence. On July 25, 1877, the House was 
in Committee on the Bill. Mr. Jenkins had rendered himself 
obnoxious to some of the members of his own party by his 
opposition to the measure, and Mr. Monk accused him of 
abusing the forms of the House. Mr. Jenkins rose to order, 
vehemently denied the charge, and then moved that those 
words be taken down. Mr. Parnell at once rose. ^'I second 
that motion," he said; ''I think the limits of forbearance have 
been passed. I say I think that the limits of forbearance 
have been passed in regard to the language which honorable 
members opposite have thought proper to address to me and 
to those who act with me." At once Sir Stafford Northcote, 
who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the 
House, rose and moved that the latter words of Mr. Parnell 
be taken down. The motion of Mr. Jenkins was irregularly 
got rid of by the intervention of the Chairman of Committees 
—Mr. Raikes— who declared that the words of Mr. Monk were 
not a breach of order. The chairman, however, proceeded to 
raise another subject of dispute by calling upon Mr. Parnell 
to withdraw his statement, *' accusing honorable members of 
this House of intimidation." The honorable member must 
withdraw that expression, said Mr. Raikes, amidst the cheers 
and intense excitement of the House. Mr. Parnell rose to 
explain; he was, constantly interrupted by "conversation, 
coughs, exclamations, cries, and groans." He denounced the 
Bill as mischievous both to the colonists and to the native 
races, and instituted a comparison between Ireland and the 
South African colonies; "therefore," he went on, "as an 
Irishman, coming from a country which had experienced to 

620 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 621 

its fullest extent the result of English interference in its 
affairs, and the consequence of English cruelty and tyranny- 
he felt a special satisfaction in preventing and thwarting the 
intentions of the Government in respect to this Bill." 

The moment these words had been uttered, the House 
thought that it had at last caught the cool, wary, and dexterous 
Irish member in a moment of forgetfulness and passion, and 
that he had given the long-sought opportunity for bringing 
him to account. Amid loud shouts. Sir Stafford Northcote 
rose and moved that the words of Mr. Parnell be taken down ; 
and this having been done, he proposed that all further busi- 
ness should be stopped, and that the Speaker should be sent 
for. The Speaker was brought in, the House filled with an 
excited crowd, and Sir Stafford Northcote moved that Mr. 
Parnell be ''suspended till Friday next." Mr. Parnell was 
called upon to explain. While the House was storming around 
him, and he was brought face to face with the prospect of 
undergoing Parliamentary censure after a manner unprece- 
dented, and thus viewed with horror by all the men around 
him, he began by a technical objection. He pointed out that 
another motion had been proposed to the House before that 
of Sir Stafford Northcote 's, and that, therefore, the motion 
of the leader of the House was out of order. But the Speaker 
ruled this objection as untenable ; and Mr. Parnell had to 
proceed with his own defence. He addressed to the House a 
speech full of the boldest defiance and of stinging suggestion. 
The House was now beside itself with rage, and there were 
loud shouts that Mr. Parnell should withdraw, as is the cus- 
tom when the conduct of a member is under consideration. 
Mr. Parnell left his seat and calmly proceeded to a place in 
the Speaker's gallery, and from this point of vantage looked 
down on the proceedings in which he himself was the subject 
of debate. 

Sir Stafford Northcote now moved that *'Mr. Parnell hav- 
ing wilfully and persistently obstructed the public business, 
is guilty of contempt of the House, and that Mr. Parnell for 
his said offence be suspended from the service of the House 
till Friday next." A fatal blow was discovered in the pro- 
posal of Sir Stafford Northcote. Mr. Parnell had certainly 
declared his interest in ''thwarting and preventing the de- 
signs," not of the House, which, of course, would be obstruc- 
tion, but of the Government, which is the object and the legiti- 



622 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

mate pursuit of every opponent of a Ministerial measure. Sir 
Stafford Northcote had evidently lost his head in his eager- 
ness to throw a Christian to the lions, and he was obliged to 
postpone further debate upon the question until the following 
Friday. Mr. Parnell, escorted by Mr. Biggar, re-entered the 
House, stood up again, and resumed his speech exactly at the 
point at which he had been interrupted two hours before by 
the impulsive motion of Sir Stafford Northcote. 

On the Friday following Sir Stafford Northcote proposed 
two new rules. The first was, that any member called to 
order twice by the Speaker or the Chairman of Committees 
could be suspended for the remainder of the sitting; and the 
second, that no member be allowed to propose more than once 
in the same sitting a motion for reporting progress of the 
adjournment of debate. The resolutions met with some criti- 
cism from the Liberal benches, but the Irish members offered 
no opposition, and the two rules were adopted for the session. 
On Wednesday, July 31, occurred the first of those prolonged 
sittings, which have since become so familiar. The Govern- 
ment, owing to the dogged and persistent opposition of Mr. 
Parn'^11 and Mr. Biggar, and to some extent of the radicals 
below the gangway, were very far behind with their legislative 
proposals, and especially with the South African Bill. At 
last it was resolved that the measure should be pushed through 
on the night of Tuesday; and on that night, for the first 
time, the expedient of relays which has since become so 
familiar was employed. The Irish members, aware of the 
arrangement that had been made against them, accepted the 
challenge, and determined to carry on the contest as long as 
their strength would hold out. There were but a few of them 
to make the fight— seven in all. They were supported for 
some time by Mr. Courtney, who was as hostile as they to 
the principle of the South African Bill, and who has since 
been justified, as well as Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar, by the 
disastrous termination to the measures of which the South 
African Bill was the starting point. But Mr. Courtney gave 
up the struggle in the small hours of the night. The fight still 
went on. At a quarter-past eight in the morning, after he 
had been fifteen hours at work, Mr. Parnell retired to rest ; 
he came back at a quarter-past twelve, four hours later, and 
resumed his share in the debates. At two o'clock the last 
amendment on the South African Bill was disposed of, and 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 623 

the Bill was througli. When the House rose it had been sit- 
ting for twenty-six hours. One other little incident is worth 
recording. Throughout the long watches of the night the 
ladies' gallery was occupied by one solitary and patient 
figure; this was Miss Fanny Parnell, who shared and in- 
spired the convictions of her brother, and who afterwards 
gave to the Irish cause some of its most stirring lyrics and 
its ablest argumentative defences, and an incessant labor amid 
daily increasing weakness and fast approaching death. 

This unprecedented sitting in the House of Commons pro- 
duced in England a tempestuous burst of anger and excite- 
ment, and for some days Mr. Parnell, Mr. Biggar, and their 
associates were denounced with a wealth of invective that 
would not have been equal to the merits of Guy Fawkes or 
Titus Gates. In their own party, too, the dissent from their 
tactics was reaching a climax; Mr. Butt seemed resolved to 
throw down the final gage of battle, and call upon the party 
to make their own choice between the continuance of his lead- 
ership and the suppression of the two mutineers. But all 
efforts to get the party to take decisive action proved abortive. 
Time-servers and office-seekers, they wanted to survive-'till 
the advent of the blessed hour when the return of the Liberals 
to power would give them the long-desired chance of throw- 
ing off the temporary mask of national views, to assume the 
permanent livery of English officials. Before that period 
could arrive, they well knew that a General Election had to 
intervene, and who knew what control over that election might 
be exercised by such extremists as Mr. Parnell and Mr. 
Biggar ? This fact adds another element of tragedy to the 
woeful eclipse in which the last days of Butt ended. His 
opponents were honest and resolute ; his friends, self-seeking, 
treacherous and half-hearted, ready to turn without a blush or 
a pause from the worship of the setting to that of the rising 
sun. 

There was another portent of the time which still more 
disquieted Butt, and brought the peril of the situation more 
clearly and unmistakably before his eyes. The policy of Mr. 
Parnell and Mr. Biggar might not as yet have won the intelli- 
gence of Ireland, but it had beyond all question gained its 
heart. The session of 1877 had ended on August 13; on the 
21st of the same month there was a meeting in the Rotunda 
in Dublin in honor of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar ; the meet- 



624 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ing was crowded ; the reception was enthusiastic ; the verdict 
of Dublin was given, and it was in favor of the new men and 
the new policy. 

The reader, to understand the success of the active policy, 
has to recall the fact which has been endeavored all through 
■this narrative to imprint upon his mind as a central fact of 
Irish politics. This was that, since the betrayal of the national 
cause by Keogh and Sadleir in 1855, the heart of the Irish 
people had never been won for Parliamentary agitation; 
there was ever the tendency to the cynic doubtfulness of those 
who have once been greatly deceived. This had a bad effect 
in several ways. In the first place, it was a steady obstacle 
to that infectious enthusiasm by the aid of which alone the 
scattered interests and forces and tendencies of a nation can 
be moulded into the unity of a great national movement. It 
left the constituents to make the fight on local or capricious 
or non-essential issues instead of a common national plat- 
form ; above all things, it left the Parliamentary Party with- 
out that force of national passion behind them without which, 
in a struggle in an assembly alien, ignorant and generally 
hostile like the House of Commons, the words of Irish national 
representatives were but as sounding brass and tinkling 
cymbal. To give the people faith— that was the first neces- 
sity of a great movement in Ireland ; that was the object, and 
that is the chief justification of the policy of the active party. 

Meantime the struggle was going on inside the bosom of 
the Home Rule Party itself. On Monday and Tuesday, Jan- 
uary 14 and 15, 1878, a conference was held in Dublin. There 
had been reports that the two parties would come into serious 
collision at the meeting. A notice appeared in the name of 
Mr. Butt, recapitulating resolutions which had been passed 
after the election of the party in 1874— resolutions pledging 
the party to act independently of both the English parties, and 
at the same time in unity with each other, and containing the 
suggestion that ''no Irish member ought to persevere in any 
course of action which shall be declared by a resolution 
adopted at a meeting of the Home Rule members to be cal- 
culated to be injurious to the national cause.*' 

On the one hand, Mr. O'Connor Power had given notice of 
a resolution which declared that, in consequence of the hos- 
tility with which the just and constitutional demands for self- 
government made by a majority of the Irish representatives 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 625 

had been met ''by both English parties in the House of Com- 
mons, it was essential to the success of the Irish cause that 
more determined and vigorous action should be taken by the 
Parliamentary Party." 

As the time for the conference approached, however, Jiutt 
had again found that he was fighting without his army. A 
private meeting of the Irish members, held on the Saturday 
before the conference, arrived at a compromise. The rival 
resolutions were withdrawn, and a set of resolutions by a 
Mr. P. McCabe Fay were accepted, which, if anything, were 
more favorable to Mr. Parnell than to Mr. Butt. 

So the conference ended in a drawn battle; but the session 
of 1878 was soon to show how impossible it was to do any- 
thing with the existing party, or with Mr. Butt himself. A 
more regular attendance on the part of members was re- 
quested, and the only result was that often when an important 
Irish Bill was proposed there were not half a dozen Irish 
members in their places. Joint action had been recommended 
on the Eastern Question, and when the great party division 
came the members took different sides. There was even a 
graver scandal, for Mr. Butt, the leader of the party, not only 
voted with the Ministry, and thereby swelled the majority of a 
party that had up to 'that time refused every single demand 
of the Irish people, but he spoke in a tone far more worthy of 
an Imperialist ** jingo" than of an Irish Nationalist. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EETIEEMENT AND DEATH OP BUTT— PARNELL GAINING GEOTJND. 

The victory of Mr. Parnell at the conference had been 
immediately preceded by another important gain. There are 
no Irishmen more fierce or resolute in the national faith than 
the Irishmen settled in England and Scotland. They are, 
though this is not generally thought, far more extreme in their 
views than the majority of the Irish in America, and they 
have an unbroken unity and a clear-sighted appreciation of 
the essential truth in great national controversies that might 
well put to the blush the half-heartedness, the wavering pur- 
poses, and the divided counsels of the Irish who have remained 
in Ireland. The Irish in England were from the very first on 
the side with Mr. Parnell. They were enrolled in an organiza- 
tion known as the Home Rule Confederation, and Mr. Butt 
was its president. At the annual convention of the Federation 
at the close of 1877, Mr. Butt was deposed, and Mr. Parnell 
was put in his place. The man who proposed the change bore 
to Mr. Butt that extraordinary affection with which this weak, 
kindly, unassuming, and childishly simple old man was accus- 
tomed to inspire nearly in every man, and could with difficulty 
maintain his composure as he gave the tottering Csesar the 
fatal stab. 

Mr. Butt now virtually retired from the leadership of the 
Home Rule Party. His resignation of his position was not 
accepted, and he was induced to remain on the condition that 
his attendance should not be regular ; this condition was for 
the purpose of allowing him to devote his attention to his 
practice. Like O'Connell, he had virtually to abandon his 
profession when he undertook the duties of Parliamentary 
leadership. In this way his already vast load of debt had been 
increased, and his hours of waking and sleeping were tortured 
by duns, by threats of proceedings, and all the other shifts 
and worries of the impecunious. His quarrel with the "ob- 
structives'* had now come to interfere with his financial as 
well as with his political position. A national subscription 
had been started. In Ireland the response of the people to 
the needs of their leaders has often been bountifully gen- 

626 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 627 

erous more often tlian perhaps in any other country; but 
those who depend on the assistance of the public are subject 
to the chances of fortune that always dog the dependents m 
any degree on the popular mood. There are times and seasons 
when even the most popular leader will not receive one-tenth 
the support which will be given in more favorable circum- 
stances, and the popular leader dependent for his living on the 
peace of the people has the life of a gambler or the theatrical 
speculator. The support of the people had been definitely 
transferred from Mr. Butt to Mr. Parnell, and the financial 
support followed the tide of popular favor. The subscription 
was a miserable failure, and Butt was now without any sup- 
port but his profession. 

But the time had passed when he could do anything there. 
The weakness of the heart's action, which had pursued him 
from his early years, was rapidly becoming worse, and in 1878 
there were many warnings of the approaching end. In that 
year he made the remark to a friend, speaking of troublesome 
symptoms from his heart, ''Is not this the curfew bell, warn- 
ing us that the light must be put out and the fire extin- 
guished ?" Still he fought on, attending the law courts daily, 
and now and then joining a desperate attempt to meet his 
daily triumphant opponents. His last appearance was the 
meeting in Molesworth Hall, on February 4, 1879. He was at 
this time engaged in the cause celebre of Baggot vs. Baggot. 
The appearance of the old man at this meeting has left a 
deep and sad impression on the minds of all those who were 
present. When he came in, the look of death was on his face ; 
the death of his hopes and his spirits had already come. 
There were many faces among those around that once had 
lighted at his look, and that now turned away in estrange- 
ment. ''Won't you speak to me?" he said in trembling tones 
to one man who had been his associate in many fights and amid 
many stirring scenes. But his old persuasive eloquence was 
still as fresh as ever, and he defended his whole policy with 
a vigor, plausibility, and closeness of reasoning that were 
worthy of his best days. This was the last meeting he ever 
attended. The next day he fell sick. The heart had at last 
refused to do its work ; the brain could no longer be supplied; 
he lingered for nearly a month with his great intellect ob- 
scured, and on May 5, 1879, he died. 

The people retained a kindly feeling for him to the end, 



628 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

but he had unqnestioiiahly outlived his usefulness; and his 
triumph over Mr. Parnell at this period of Irish history would 
have been a national calamity that might have brought hideous 
disasters. Sufficient time has elapsed since his death to pro- 
nounce a calm estimate of his career. The unwisdom of his 
policy was largely due undoubtedly to the difficulties of his 
circumstances. He had a wretched party; with one honest 
and unselfish man to five self-seekers ; but he laid the founda- 
tions of a great party in the future, and, more than any other 
man, he prepared the people for the new struggle for self- 
government. It was his misfortune to come at the unhappy 
interval of transition from the bad and old and hopeless order 
of things to a new and a better and brighter epoch. Between 
the era of 1865 and the era of 1878 Ireland was, so far as 
constitutional movements were concerned, in a political 
morass. It was Butt that carried the country over that dan- 
gerous ground. His foot was light, and slippery, and timid; 
but the ground over which he had to pass was treacherous^ 
perilous, and full of invisible and bottomless pools. 

But all the same, it was well for Ireland that Butt died at 
this moment. The country was again approaching one of those 
crises the outcome of which was to mean either a re-plunge 
into the slough of despond, such as she had been immersed in 
from 1845 to 1865, or the start of a new era of hope, effort, 
and prosperity. If Butt had survived, and had retained the 
leadership, there is little doubt that he would have been in- 
capable of rising to the height of the argument, and would 
have counselled shilly-shallying where it meant death, and 
moderation where extreme courses were required to avert a 
national disaster, wholesale, violent, and perhaps fatal; or, 
if he had not retained the full leadership by the destruction 
of the rising efforts of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar, and if he 
and they still remained in political existence, and to some 
extent in political alliance, then there would have been divided 
counsels ; and the time was one for unity. All the meanness 
and servility and half-heartedness of the country would have 
found in Mr. Butt a rallying point, and the crisis was one that 
demanded all the energy and courage and concentrated pur- 
pose of the country. 





MICHAEL DAVITT. 



THOMAS SEXTON. 





JOHN E. REDMOND. 



JOHN DILLON. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MICHAEL DAVITT, '* TRIBUNE OF THE IRISH PEOPLE" AND FATHER 
OF THE LAND LEAGUE. 

During the earlier months of 1879 the attention of the 
Chief Secretary had been called more than once to the calam- 
ity that was impending over Ireland. He received all these 
statements with easy and jaunty denials. At last, on May 27, 
when the House was adjourning for the Whitsuntide recess, 
the Irish members made a final attempt to force the condition 
of the country upon the attention of the Chief Secretary. 
Entreaty, argument, intimate acquaintance with the facts of 
the case ; graphic pictures of the dire distress of the country ; 
all were lost on Mr. Lowther. He was ready to go so far as 
to acknowledge that there was ''some" depression in the 
agriculture of Ireland; but he went on to say he was glad to 
think that that depression, although undoubted, was "neither 
so prevalent nor so acute as the depression existing in other 
parts of the United Kingdom." ''Seldom," justly remarks 
Mr. A. M. Sullivan, "did an English Minister speak a sen- 
tence destined to have more memorable results. In that mo- 
ment Mr. James Lowther sealed the doom of Irish landlord- 
ism"; for Mr. Lowther 's answer drove Mr. Pamell into the 
ranks of the Land League. The agrarian movement in Ire- 
land meantime had been greatly stimulated by Mr. Davitt ; a 
remarkable man with a remarkable history. 

Michael Davitt was born in 1846, near the small village 
of Straid, in the county of Mayo. His father was a farmer 
who was among the many thousands of victims of those whole- 
sale evictions which have followed the curse of Landlordism 
in Ireland. Mr. Davitt was but four years of age when he saw 
his home destroyed. His father and mother went to England, 
and had to beg through the streets of England for bread. The 
family settled in the little town of Haslingden in Lancashire. 
His mother was in the habit of frequently repeating the details 
of this cruel and memorable episode in his earliest years ; and, 
undoubtedly, it was this eviction scene which influenced the 
fortunes of his entire family, and has been the fiercest incen- 
tive of Davitt 's attitude towards landlordism ever since. Over 

629 



630 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

and over again references to this incident occur in his 
speeches. Eeplying once to an ungenerous attack made upon 
him, which appeared under the name of the late Archbishop 
MacHale, though probably never written by him, Mr. Davitt 
wrote : 

''Some twenty-five years ago my father was ejected from 
a small holding near the parish of Straid, in Mayo, because 
unable to pay a rent which the crippled state of his resources, 
after struggling through the famine years, rendered impos- 
sible. Trials and sufferings in exile for a quarter of a cen- 
tury, in which I became physically disabled for life, a father 's 
grave dug beneath American soil, myself the only member 
ever destined to live or die in Ireland, and this privilege 
existing only by virtue of ticket-of-leave, are the consequences 
which followed that eviction." 

When he was a child he was sent to a mill to work, and 
there he was by an accident deprived of his right arm. At 
this time he had received but the merest rudiments of educa- 
tion, and this accident obtained for him the advantage of 
another instalment of instruction. At eleven years of age he 
secured employment in the local post-office ; and as the post- 
master had also a business in printing and stationery, Mr. 
Davitt had an opportunity of taking an occasional peep at 
books. 

In this way he had already attained some prominence 
among the Irishmen of his district ; but up to this time he had 
not formed strong national opinions; or, if there were the 
germs of such opinions in his mind, they had not assumed 
definite shape. One night he went to hear an address on an 
Irish subject. The wrongs of Ireland were narrated by an 
eloquent tongue. All the latent forces and unformed notions 
in Mr. Davitt 's nature were at once crystallized; and from 
that hour forward he was an ardent Irish Nationalist. He 
soon became a member of the Fenian organization, and he 
took part in the attempted seizure of Chester Castle. Unable 
to shoulder a rifle with his single arm, he carried a small 
store of cartridges in a bag made from a pocket-handkerchief. 

After the failure of the enterprise, he managed to escape 
arrest and returned to Haslingden; but he soon entered on 
active operations again in connection with the movement, and 
was employed in the work of purchasing arms and forwarding 
them to Ireland. On May 14, 1870, he was arrested in London 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 631 

along with an Englishman named John Wilson, a gunsmith of 
Birmingham, and he was convicted mainly on the evidence of 
an informer named Corydon, and sentenced to fifteen year^ 
penal sei-vitude. He was often subjected, like other Irish 
political prisoners, to that brutality of punishment which 
England and Russia are alone am'ong European countries in 
inflicting upon political prisoners. It is impossible for a 
man of any nationality to read his own account of the suf- 
ferings and indignities through which he had to pass without 
feelings of burning anger. A rebel against laws which had 
broken up his home, impoverished and exiled those dearest to 
him, he had resorted to the only weapons which then seemed 
capable of arresting the attention of that country whose 
apathy to Irish ruin Mr. Gladstone has so well described, and 
he was but antedating reforms, most of which have since 
passed into law; but he was sent to herd with murderers, 
pickpockets, and burglars, passed through solitary confine- 
ment, and was overworked, underfed, and exposed to all* 
changes of the seasons. 

At last, on Wednesday morning, December 19, 1877 ; after 
seven years and seven months of this dread suffering, he was 
released. A series of enthusiastic receptions awaited him 
and the three other Fenian prisoners who had been released 
about the same time, namely, Color-Sergeant McCarthy, Cor- 
poral Thomas Chambers, and Private John P. Bryan. It had 
been constantly denied that Sergeant McCarthy had been ill- 
treated in prison, and asserted that his health had in no way 
suffered. Two days after his arrival in Dublin, however, 
McCarthy gave testimony that could no longer be denied. Mr. 
Davitt, McCarthy, and the two other released prisoners had 
been invited by Mr. Pamell to breakfast with him in Mor- 
rison's Hotel. While they were awaiting breakfast, McCarthy 
was observed to grow pale and totter across the room, and, 
having been laid on the sofa, in a few minutes he was dead. 
The twelve years of penal servitude had at last done their 
work. 

Mr. Davitt then proceeded on a lecturing tour throughout 
England and Scotland. Later on, he determined to go to 
America to see his mother and other relatives who had set- 
tled in the town of Manayunk in Pennsylvania. He landed 
in New York about the beginning of August, 1878. At this 
time he had very few acquaintances in America; he soon, 



632 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

however, came in contact with some leading Irishmen settled 
in that country, and made a favorable impression upon them. 
After various consultations, Mr. Davitt formed an outline of 
a land movement; but his ideas were still in a crude and 
indefinite shape. 

When he returned to Ireland, time and the seasons fought 
upon his side. Widespread distress threatened to be most 
severe in the West, and curiously enough, there already ex- 
isted in that region the germs of a land movement. The 
tenants had kept up some form of association from the 
moment at which the worthlessness of the Land Act of 1870 
was discovered. In Dublin, for instance, there was an or- 
ganization known as ''The Central Tenants' Defence Asso- 
ciation," the object of which was the attainment of what 
afterwards became known as the ''Three F's." There was 
also a local organization which subsequently, perhaps, did 
more than any other to beget the Land League ; this was the 
Tenants' Defence Association of Balinasloe. The foremost 
figure of this association was a man named Matthew Harris. 
Matthew Harris was one of the most interesting and striking 
figures of the Irish movements of the last thirty years. Dur- 
ing all this period he devoted himself with self-sacrificing 
and unremitting zeal to the attainment of complete redress 
of his country's grievances. In this respect politics were with 
him an absorbing passion, almost a religion. In pursuit of 
this high and noble end he risked death, lost liberty, and 
ruined his business prospects. Eager, enthusiastic, vehement, 
he had at the same time that grim tenacity of purpose by 
which forlorn hopes are changed into triumphant fruitions. 
He fought the battle against landlordship in the dark as 
well as in the brightest hour with unshaken resolution. Reared 
in the country, from an early age he saw landlordship in its 
worst shape and aspect ; his childish recollections were of cruel 
and heartless evictions. Thus it was that in every movement 
for the liberation of the farmer or of Ireland during the last 
years of his life he was a conspicuous figure, as hopeful, en- 
ergetic, laborious, in the hour of despair, apathy, and lassi- 
tude, as in times of universal vigor, exultation and activity. 

But it was not in the county of Galway that this movement 
took its birth. Mr. Davitt, as has been seen, was a native 
of the neighboring county of Mayo, and there he determined 
to make the first start. The Land League may be dated from 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 633 

one of these meetings. This was a gathering which assembled 
on April 20, 1879, at Irish town, in the county of Mayo. This 
meeting was convened for the purpose of protesting against 
some acts of oppression on the part of the landlords of the 
district. The promoters of the meeting were Mr. Davitt and 
Mr. Brennan, the latter afterwards secretary of the Land 
League. Mr. Davitt did not attend the meeting, and the chief 
speaker at it was Mr. O'Connor Power, M. P. Several other 
meetings followed. The deepening distress among the farm- 
ers and the increase of evictions by the landlords supplied an 
impetus which had the effect of advancing the movement with 
extraordinary rapidity. The times, in fact, were ripe enough 
for an agrarian revolt. But, as yet, the movement was local 
and obscure. Scarcely any reports found their way into the 
metropolitan newspapers, and the country was generally 
unconscious of the portentous new birth. Deservedly great as 
was the influence of Mr. Davitt, and immense as were his 
exertions, the movement could not be said yet to have reached 
its pinnacle until the leader came, to whom, at this moment, 
the eyes and hopes and affections, of all the Irish Nationalists 
were gradually turning. One of the great forces which had 
inspired the hope and strength which made the new movement 
possible was the spirit excited throughout Ireland by the 
attitude of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar in the House of 
Commons. The scenes— vexatious, indecorous, wanton, or 
boorish, as they appeared to the English public— were to the 
people of Ireland the electric messages of new hope. Every 
iword of these scenes was read with fierce and breathless 
eagerness. The representatives of a country trodden under 
foot for centuries were seen in the citadel of the enemy, ag- 
gressive and defiant. The Parliament that trampled on every 
Irish demand for so many generations was seen raging in 
hysteric and impotent fury against the growing omnipotence 
of the two determined men. The movement that starts from 
1879 will not be understood unless the fact is grasped that 
Ireland at that moment was living under the burning glow of 
Parliamentary "obstruction.'* The temper which this fact 
produced was the original impulse in preventing the farmers 
of 1879 from lying down, dumb, helpless, and cowering, under 
eviction, famine, and plague, as was done by their fathers in 
1846-47. 

The position Mr. Parnell had already attained marked him 



634 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



out as a man who, if he undertook the leadership of a move- 
ment, would carry it through every defile of difficulty and 
danger to the end. He was rapidly becoming the idol of the 
people, who could fuse their passions and their affections into 
a united and mighty effort. For a considerable time Mr. 
Parnell hesitated before taking a step beyond the ''Three 
F's," but at last he crossed the Rubicon and joined the ranks 
of those who declared that the struggle on the Land Question 
should only end with the transfer of the proprietorship of the 
soil from the landlord to the tiller. This was to be the final 
settlement of the question; but, meanwhile, the wolf was at 
the door. How was the emergency of deepening distress, of 
ever-advancing famine and ever-increasing eviction to be met? 
This was the terrible problem which Mr. Parnell had now to 
face. 




Ornament on top of Devenish Round Toweii 
From Petrie's ''Round Towers," aoo, 



CHAPTER X. 

ACUTE STAGE IN THE LAND AGITATION— PARNELL ADVISES, ^'kEEP 
A FIRM GRIP OF YOUR HOLDINGS," 

And now I have come to one of the cross-roads in my 
story. All that I have written will have failed in its purpose 
if the readers do not see the road to take at this crisis, clearly 
marked out as with an iron finger. 1846 and 1847 left two 
memories: the memory of the terrible suffering, and the 
memory of how that suffering was submitted to. Ever since 
there has been no feeling so bitter in the hearts of Irishmen, 
especially the hearts of young Irishmen, as the feeling that 
much of the awful suffering could have been prevented if the 
people only had the courage to act in their own defence ; to re- 
fuse to allow food to be exported from a starving nation ; to re- 
fuse the payment of impossible rents that one man might lux- 
uriate in an hour of national cataclysm and tens of thousands 
perish in the agonies of hunger and of typhus fever ; to refuse 
submission to decrees of eviction, and, through eviction, of 
death or exile from lands brought to fertility by their toil, 
from houses built in their own sweat and blood and tears. And 
this is something more than a mere feeling. The idea will 
stand the test of the severest examination, that in a moment 
of national crisis, such as the Irish famine, the safety of the 
nation demanded some sacrifice on the part of the landlords ; 
a sacrifice best if willingly made, as by the landlords in Eng- 
land and in Scotland ; in any case a sacrifice, whether willing 
or unwilling. 

Mr. Parnell found the majority of the farmers face to 
face with either of these two dilemmas: if they had all the 
rent, they might give every penny to the landlord, and allow 
themselves, their wives, and their children to perish. If they 
had not the rent, and the landlord insisted on his ''rights,*' 
they were subject to eviction on a scale as wholesale as the 
clearances that followed 1846 and 1847. To call upon the 
people, under circumstances like these, to pay all their rent, 
was to recommend them to follow the example of 1846 with 
the sequels of 1847— wholesale starvation and wholesale 
eviction. This was not the policy that recommended itself to 

635 



636 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Mr. Parnell ; such a policy would have been that of a coward 
and a traitor. The first Land meeting attended by Mr. Parnell 
took place at Westport on June 8, 1879. Mr. Parnell, in his 
speech, laid down on clear lines the Land policy of the future 
and the policy of the hour. He declared in favor, not of the 
*' Three F's," but of Peasant Proprietary. 

''In Belgium," said Mr. Parnell, ''in Prussia, in France, 
and in Eussia the land has been given to the people; to the 
occupiers of the land. In some cases the landlords have been 
deprived of their property in the soil by the iron hand of 
revolution; in other cases, as in Prussia, the landlords have 
been purchased out. If such an arrangement could be made 
without injuring the landlord, so as to enable the tenant to 
have his land as his own, and to cultivate it as it ought to 
be cultivated, it would be for the benefit and prosperity of the 
country. ' ' 

But this, as he said immediately, was to be regarded as the 
final settlement of the question ; the immediate point was what 
the people were to do in order to avert the calamity which 
was at that moment at their very doors. 

"Now," he said, "what must we do in order to induce the 
landlords to see the position? You must show the landlords 
that you intend to hold a firm grip of your homesteads and 
land." 

The phrase had much appropriateness to the situation and 
to the time that it at once passed into men's mouths. While 
in the train that brought him to the meeting, Mr. Parnell was 
passing over in memory some of the scenes in which Mr. 
Biggar and himself had taken part in Parliament. He was 
musing over the deadly tenacity with which the member for 
Cavan always stuck to his purpose. Tenacity was translated 
into the shorter word "grip," and thus was born the memor- 
able and potent phrase "hold," or, as it was afterwards ex- 
pressed, "keep a firm grip of your homesteads and land." 

From the moment Mr. Parnell put himself at the head of 
the Land movement it spread with enormous rapidity, and 
soon reached startling proportions. Meeting after meeting 
was held in many parts of Ireland, and before long it was 
evident that Mr. Parnell was at the head of. the mightiest 
popular movement since the days of O'Connell and 1845. 

Meantime the Government and the London press looked on 
with sinister eye. A central organization was formed in Sep- 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 637 

tember, 1879. On October 21, 1879, a meeting was held by 
circular in the Imperial Hotel, Lower O'Connell (then Sack- 
ville) street; Mr. A. J. Kettle presided. The Land League 
was then and there founded. The following resolutions set 
forth the principles of the new organization : 

I. That the objects of the League are, first, to bring about 
a reduction of rack-rents ; second, to facilitate the obtaining 
of the ownership of the soil by the occupiers. 

II. That the objects of the League can be best attained 

(1) by promoting organization among the tenant farmers; 

(2) by defending those who may be threatened with eviction 
for refusing to pay unjust rents; (3) by facilitating the work- 
ing of the Bright Clauses of the Land Act during the winter ; 
and (4) by obtaining such reform in the laws relating to land 
as will enable every tenant to become the owner of his holding 
by paying a fair rent for a limited number of years. 

Mr. Parnell was elected president, and Mr. Kettle, Mr. 
Davitt, and Mr. Brennan were appointed honorary secre- 
taries. Mr. J. G. Biggar, M. P., Mr. W. H. 'Sullivan, M. P., 
and Mr. Patrick Egan were appointed treasurers, and a reso- 
lution calling upon Mr. Parnell to go to America and obtain 
assistance was passed. Mr. John Dillon was to accompany 
Mr. Parnell to America. 

This was the first time that a leader of a constitutional 
movement had gone among the Irish in America for the pur- 
pose of obtaining assistance for the people at home. Mr. 
Parnell's tour was a series of enthusiastic receptions. Wher- 
ever he went, and in nearly every town through which he 
passed, he addressed thousands of people. Officials of the 
United States attended and presided over his meetings, and 
at last he was paid the compliment of which only two other 
men— Kossuth and Dr. England— had been the recipients in 
the whole course of American history: he was permitted to 
address the House of Eepresentatives at Washington. The 
financial results of his tour were extraordinarily large. The 
Land League, owing to the severity of the distress through- 
out the country, had resolved to devote a portion of its funds 
to the relief of the distress. The funds raised by Mr. Parnell 
were divided into two parts ; one for the purpose of organiza- 
tion, the other for the relief of distress. For both, about 
$360,000 had been subscribed. 

The indirect effects of this tour were, perhaps, even more 



638 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

important. The reality of Irish distress could no longer be 
denied, and there grew up a competition between different 
sections as to which should most liberally contribute towards 
.the movement for preventing famine. Thus, although Mr. 
Lowther as Chief Secretary had denied the existence of dis- 
tress, the fact had been brought so clearly home to the mind 
of the Lord-Lieutenant that his wife, the Duchess of Marl- 
borough, issued an appeal, giving a dark picture of the state 
of the country, and formed a relief committee. The Lord 
Mayor of Dublin for 1880 happened to be a man of great 
energy and ability, Mr. E. Dwyer Gray, and he also formed 
a committee of relief; and thus, by the beginning of 1880, 
no fewer than three committees were working to prevent the 
occurrence of famine. Thus the action of Mr. Parnell and 
the Land League had brought the condition of the country 
from the region of debate into that of admitted fact, notorious 
to all the nations of the world. 

Even Mr. Lowther and the Parliament were compelled at 
last to listen. Acknowledging the distress, they adopted a 
method for meeting it which is perhaps unexampled even in 
the history of the legislation of the House of Commons on the 
Irish land question. While the landlords were scattering 
notices of eviction over the country wholesale, the Government 
conceived the felicitous idea that the landlords formed the 
most suitable agency for supplying relief to the tenants. 
Accordingly a Bill was introduced, the effect of which was to 
lend to the landlords the sum of £1,092,985 without interest 
for two years, and one per cent at interest afterwards. This 
money was to be used by the landlords in giving employment 
to their tenants, and in thus preventing the spread of famine., 
With unconscious humor this extraordinary measure was 
called ''The Belief of Distress Act." 

In March, 1880, Lord Beaconsfield decided to dissolve 
Parliament. The cry he chose was an anti-Irish manifesto. I 
will not stop in this place to examine into the morality of the 
statesman who, at the moment when Ireland was in the very 
agony of famine, did not scruple to arouse the fierce racial 
passions of the more powerful against the weaker nation. 

The news of the impending dissolution reached Mr. Parnell 
on March 8, when he was speaking at Montreal. At once he 
saw that it was necessary for him to proceed to Ireland with- 
out one moment's delay. His lecture delivered, he started for 
New York. On the very morning of his departure he laid the 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 639 

foundation of a Land League in America, and on March lOtH 
he sailed for home. He reached Queenstown on March 21st; 
the Dissolution took place on March 24th, and the first elec- 
tion in Ireland was on April 1st. The interval for a general 
electoral campaign was small indeed. However, the moment 
he landed in Ireland he proceeded to fight the election with 
an energy that seemed 'diabolic. He rushed from one part of 
the country to another, made innumerable speeches, had inter- 
views with most of the Parliamentary candidates, himself 
stood for three constituencies. Throughout all this feverish 
struggle there was ever by his side, sharing, and often doing 
most of his work, the bright, fiercely industrious, sleeplessly 
active young secretary whom he had summoned to him in 
America. 

Mr. Parnell fought the entire election with the sum of 
£1,250— £1,000 which he obtained as a personal loan, £100 sent 
from Liverpool, and £150 which was obtained by his astute 
secretary from political opponents after a fashion not un- 
amusing. He was thus unable to put forward candidates for 
several constituencies in which his name would have ensured 
success, and he was obliged to put up with the wrecks of 
broken faith and falsified pledges which previous Parliaments 
had laid high and dry on the political shore. In some other 
constituencies he did not find time or opportunity to interfere 
at all. And in this way he and the constituencies and the 
Irish cause were deprived of many a man who might have 
swelled the ranks of those who fought throughout the mem- 
orable years between 1880 and 1885. His toughest contest 
was in the city of Cork, which he won from Dr. Nicholas D. 
Murphy, a characteristic specimen of the class of Catholic 
Whigs whose timidity and treachery have been one of the 
most potent agencies in the hands of English Ministers for 
prolonging the reign of Irish misery and of Irish servitude. 
The result of the whole election was that there were sixty- 
eight men returned as Home Rulers. The deceptiveness of 
this total will be judged from the fact that among the Home 
Rulers were reckoned such men as Mr. J. Orrell Lever, re- 
turned as one of the members for Galway, and Mr. Whitworth, 
returned for Drogheda. Of the other Home Rulers the ma- 
jority were reckoned supporters of Mr. Shaw, and but a 
small minority were openly pledged to follow Mr. Parnell; 
a considerable number had not made a definite choice between 
the policies of the rival leaders. 



CHAPTEE XI. 



EAELY LIFE OF JUSTIN M 'CAETHY. 



The struggle between the two sections of the Home Eule 
Party soon began. Without any consultation with Mr. Parnell 
a meeting of the new party was called for. Several of the 
new members refused to attend. A second meeting had to be 
convened, and this took place at the City Hall, Dublin, on May 
17th. On this occasion nearly every one of the new men who 
had been returned to support Mr. Parnell was present. To 
the general world they were unknown, obscure, and to some 
extent despised; and many of them were young. But there 
was scarcely one of them whose previous career had not been 
a preparation for the position which he now held, and who 
had not been living a life either of action or of thought to 
which membership of a party led by such a leader as Mr. 
Parnell was an appropriate climax. Amid their varied char- 
acters they all possessed something alike in a certain dash of 
fanaticism. Mr. Justin McCarthy had been elected before. 
Almost from his entry into the House of Commons he had 
drifted towards the side of Mr. Parnell. Some surprise was 
felt when he consented to stand and be elected as an Irish 
member; probably there was more than one city in England 
or Scotland that would have felt honor by such a representa- 
tive as the author of the *' History of Our Own Times," and 
there certainly would in time have been a Liberal Adminis- 
tration that would have been glad to have counted him among 
its members. Even many Irishmen at the start of Justin 
McCarthy's career may have felt that he would have taken his 
place in the ranks of an English Liberal Government as 
appropriate as in those of an Irish National Party. And yet 
Justin McCarthy had a past of which but few people knew; 
but to those who knew that past, its most complete and fitting 
sequel was that Mr. McCarthy should be one of the leaders of 
the first really independent party in the British Parliament. 

Justin McCarthy was born in Cork in 1830. When he was 
a boy the capital of Munster could lay claim to really de- 
serving the traditional reputation of the province for learning. 
Mr. McCarthy's father was one of the best classical scholars 

610 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 641 

of the day, and there was at that time a schoolmaster named 
Goulding; the name is familiar to many a Cork man still; 
who was a really fine scholar. Justin McCarthy was one of 
Goulding 's pupils, and when he left school he had the not 
common power even among hard students of being able to 
read Greek fluently, and to write as well as translate Latin 
with complete ease. He had taught himself shorthand, and 
his first employment was that of a reporter on the Cork 
Examiner. It may be an interesting fact to note that his 
hand still retains its cunning. There are two other important 
reminiscences of Mr. McCarthy's reporting days. He was 
present at the meeting in Cork at which the late Judge Keogh 
swore that oath which played so tragic a part in Irish history ; 
and he was also present at the famous dinner at which Lord 
Fitzgerald, then a rising young lawyer, in the ardor and viru- 
lence of his patriotism, bearded a Lord Lieutenant, and scan- 
dalized an audience of Cork's choicest Whigs. It was in 1847 
that Mr. McCarthy started his professional life, and everybody 
knows that all that was young, enthusiastic, and earnest in 
Cork shared the political aspirations of that stormy time. 
There had been in existence for many years a debating society 
known as the '''Scientific and Literary Society," and one of 
the many forms in which the new spirit roused by Young 
Ireland showed itself was the starting of a body known as the 
Cork Historical Society, as a rival to the older and tamer 
association. Among the members of this body were many 
young fellows who afterwards rose to importance. Sir John 
Pope Hennessy, and Justin McCarthy himself, were among 
its first recruits. The Historical Society became a recruiting 
ground for Young Ireland ; nearly all its members joined the 
party of combat, and they founded one of the many Confed- 
erate Clubs that were started to prepare for the coming strug- 
gle. 

President Grevy in his sober age remembers the day when 
he mounted a barricade. Similarly Justin McCarthy, in his 
maturity of philosophic calm, can look back to a time when 
he dreamed of rifles and bayonet charges, and death in the 
midst of fierce fight for the cause of Ireland. To those who 
know him there is no difference in the man of to-day and the 
man of '48. He has still the same unflinching courage as 
then. In this respect, indeed, Justin McCarthy is a singular 
mixture of incompatibilities. There is no man who enjoys 



642 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the hour more keenly. He has the capacity of M. Renan for 
finding the life around him amusing; enjoys society and soli- 
tude, work and play, a choice dinner or an all-night sitting. 
But he has eminently "a two o'clock in the morning courage" 
—a readiness to face the worst without notice. With his 
advanced years he is still a man of sanguine temperament; 
but in '48 he was only eighteen. He naturally, therefore, 
belonged to the section which had Mitchell for its apostle, 
and open and immediate insurrection for its gospel. Mitchell 
was arrested, and no attempt was made to rescue him; and 
there were many among the companions of McCarthy who 
saw in this failure the death of their hopes, the end of their 
efforts for the Irish cause. Justin McCarthy was not one of 
these. 

Even after Mitchell's arrest, and the miserable fiasco in 
which the rebellion of 1848 had ended, there were still some 
young and unconquerable men who thought that all hopes of 
resurrection through revolution should not be allowed to die. 
Probably they did not hope to win in the struggle against the 
might of England ; but the awful tragedy .thus being enacted 
in Ireland made acquiescence a crime, and they resolved to 
do something which would get the world to stop and listen, 
and perhaps pity and help. If they could not win, they would 
show at least that there were some Irishmen who knew how 
to die, and, perchance, out of their graves might come some 
hope for the awful despair of the Irish nation in this epoch 
of famine, plague, and eviction. They enrolled members, gath- 
ered arms, drilled, settled a scheme of simultaneous revolt in 
various parts of the country. In all these things Justin 
McCarthy took his part, and in the region where the Cork 
Park now stands, the future historian swore in the members 
of a revolutionary organization. The effort ended as so 
many before and since : there was a mistake about the signal ; 
the simultaneous outbreak did not take place, and the few 
sporadic risings which did break out were crushed. 

With this episode ended for the moment Justin McCarthy's 
political history, and from this period, for many years, his 
story is that of the literary man. In the year 1851 Mr. 
McCarthy first tried his fortunes in London. The attempt 
ended in failure, and he had to return to the reporter's place 
in Cork. Not long after this he met with his first piece of 
luck. There was at that time a Royal Commission for inquir- 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 643 

ing into the fairs and markets of Ireland, and the secretary 
having broken down, Justin McCarthy was taken on as the 
official shorthand writer. His aptitude was such that some 
member of the Commission urged him to again go to London, 
and armed him with letters of introduction to persons of in- 
fluence. This was in 1852. McCarthy again tried his chance 
and went to the Times and other offices, but without success. 
Before he could continue this fruitless search he heard of the 
Northern Times, the first provincial of England, which was 
just about to be started in Liverpool, applied for a situation, 
and was accepted. 

But he was still only a reporter, and even he himself did 
not yet very well know whether he was fitted for better things. 
He worked on, gave literary lectures, and in the end was 
allowed the privilege of contributing to the editorial columns. 
He remained in Liverpool till 1860 ; in that year the Northern 
Times, pressed hard by more daring rivals, failed. McCarthy 
was contended for by several Liverpool journals, but he 
declined all, fixed in the resolve to make or mar his fortune in 
London. At this time the young journalist had a counsellor 
who for many years was the arbiter of his destiny. Before 
he left Cork he had seen, but he had never spoken to, Miss 
Charlotte AUman, a member of the well-known Munster fam- 
ily, and, in the meantime. Miss Allman had come to reside with 
her brother in Liverpool. The two young people resolved to 
marry, in spite of the strong opposition of relatives and in 
face of the frowning fortunes of a young, a badly paid, and as 
yet unknown journalist; and in 1855 they were married in 
the town of Macclesfield. To those who knew Mrs. Mc- 
Carthy there is no need to dilate on the resistless charm of her 
truly beautiful nature. She never wrote a line; she did not 
even pretend to any literary power; but she had the keen 
intelligence of sympathy, she had faith in her husband, and 
she had indomitable courage. It was she that induced Mr. 
McCarthy to refuse all the Liverpool offers, and that turned 
his face steadily to the larger hopes of London. The joint 
capital of the young couple when they landed in London was 
£10. Of that they spent more than £1 in buying an olive or 
some other sprout which was planted with lofty hopes in the 
garden of their new house in Battersea, and which, of course, 
perished after a short and sickly existence. 



CHAPTER XII. 

m'caethy's notable liteeaey and political caeeek. 

Mr. McCarthy's first engagement in London was as a 
Parliamentary reporter on the Morning Star. He found 
time to do other work in the intervals of this hard occupation, 
and, mainly through the persuasions of his wife, tried his 
hand at an essay for one of the big magazines. He had 
taught himself French, German, and Italian; was familiar 
with the three literatures, and his first attempt at essay- 
writing had Schiller for its subject. He next tried the West- 
minster Review, and two articles of his in that periodical 
suggested views so novel, and at the same time so correct, that 
they attracted the attention of John Stuart Mill. The 
philosopher was introduced to the young writer, showed a 
friendly interest in his welfare, and helped to advance his 
fortunes. Promotion at last began to come rapidly. In the 
autumn of 1860 he was appointed foreign editor of the Morn- 
ing Star, and in 1865 he became editor-in-chief. Those who 
remember the journal and the times when it lived will know 
what splendid service it did to the cause of Ireland, which at 
that period seemed terribly hopeless indeed; and its tone of 
energetic and even fierce advocacy of Irish national claims 
was, of course, largely due to the inspiration of the ardent 
Irishman who was then at its head. It was while he was in 
this position that Mr. McCarthy became intimately acquainted 
with Mr. John Bright. The great tribune was fond of spend- 
ing some hours in the office of the Star, in which his sister, 
the widow of Samuel Lucas, who was the brother of the 
Frederick Lucas of Irish history, had some shares ; and many 
an hour did the editor and politician spend together in dis- 
cussing the oratorical exploits of Mr. Gladstone, the thing that 
did duty for a conscience for Mr. Disraeli, or the comparative 
merits of Shakespeare and Milton. It was one of the unpleas- 
ant consequences of the fierce struggles of the last few years 
that those two old friends had ceased even to speak to one an- 
other. But in 1868, when it became clear that Mr. Bright 
was going to become a Minister, and when he sold out his 
share in the Morning Star, Mr. McCarthy lost all desire to be 

044 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 645 

further connected with the journal, and resigned his position. 
He then went to America. His reputation had gone before 
him, and he found an embarrassing choice of offers awaiting 
him. He had, while still editor of the Star, published his first 
novel, "Paul Massey" (this appeared in 1866), a story writ- 
ten after the sensational fashion of that hour, which Mr. 
McCarthy has since suppressed. This had been followed in 
1867 by the ''Waterdale Neighbors," a charming story. One 
of Mr. McCarthy's first engagements was to write a series of 
stories for the Galaxy, then perhaps the chief literary maga- 
zine in America. He was also asked to lecture, and partly 
because the terms were extremely remunerative, and partly 
out of a desire to see the country, he consented. He was an 
extremely successful lecturer, and between his pen and his 
tongue found the United States the El Dorado it has proved 
to so many from the old world. He paid a brief visit to 
London in the middle of 1870, returned again in the autumn 
of that year, and finally in the autumn of 1871 came back to 
England for good. His name meantime had been kept steadily 
before the English reading public. In 1869, "My Enemy's 
Daughter," which had been written nearly ten years before, 
ran through Belgravia, then under the management of Miss 
Braddon. Immediately after his return Mr. McCarthy was 
offered, and accepted, an engagement on the Daily News as 
Parliamentary leader writer. For years he was one of the 
best known figures in the Eeporter's Gallery, and was looked 
up to by most of his editorial colleagues, as the man who 
took the most rapid and the most accurate view of a Parlia- 
mentary situation, and as having the most sagacious head of 
the political writers of his time. His literary fortunes, mean- 
time, steadily advanced; and in "Dear Lady Disdain" he 
wrote a second novel which everybody talked about, and upon 
which there was a real run. With the versatility which is so 
singular he soon after devoted himself to another and a very 
different kind of work, undertaking a contemporary chronicle, 
under the title "History of Our Own Times," the first two 
volumes of which were published in 1878. Everybody knows 
the result. The book— to quote the hackneyed expression- 
took the town by storm. It was praised with equal fervor by 
Conservative and by Liberal critics ; its style was as much an 
object of eulogy as its tone and its temper. It was, indeed, 
a model of what contemporary history should be. Equal jus- 



646 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

tice was dealt out to all parties; the portraits of men were 
clear-cut and sympathetic, and the style was evenly melodious 
without one single attempt at rhetoric, without one phrase 
or one passage that could be called pretentious. The book 
sold with enormous rapidity, and edition followed edition in 
rapid succession. Great as was its success in Europe, it had 
a success still greater in America. Eival publishers brought 
out rival editions, and the present writer never remembers to 
have gone on any journey in America without seeing a copy 
of the "History of Our Own Times" in the hands of several 
of the passengers. But the hapless author gained little from 
this enormous American sale, for as yet there was no copy- 
right between England and America. His old publishers, the 
Messrs. Harper and Brothers, with that fair dealing which 
characterizes all their transactions, did send him voluntarily 
an occasional instalment of a hundred pounds or so, but they 
at the same time told him that if there had been an interna- 
tional copyright they could have well afforded to have given 
him £10,000 for his rights 

Little has been said of Mr. McCarthy's modern political 
career. He is one of the men who does not owe Mr. Parnell 
anything; as the Irish leader would himself have been the 
first to acknowledge ; but Mr. McCarthy soon saw that in Mr. 
Parnell there was the real chief of that honest and independ- 
ent Parliamentary Party for which, like so many of the old 
'48 men, he had been looking upwards of thirty years ; to Mr. 
Parnell, then, he unreservedly gave his confidence and his 
support. Sagacious, tranquil, and experienced, he was thrown 
into a prominent position at an epoch of fierce and tempestu- 
ous passions; but nobody was readier to see, when the time 
came, the necessity for strong action. He has been ready on 
every emergency to take his share of the unspeakable drudg- 
ery to which Irish members have been subjected; and it im- 
posed a greater sacrifice on him than on any other member of 
the Irish party to face the odium and the loss of personal and 
professional prestige which a part in these unpopular labors 
involved. If the delivery of Mr. McCarthy were equal to his 
intellectual and rhetorical powers, he would be amongst the 
foremost speakers of the House. He is ready ; he has eminently 
clearness of head and calmness of temper; and his ideas 
clothed themselves in language of beauty, smoothness, and ap- 
propriateness with an unerring regularity which bielonged to 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 647 

but two other speakers in the House— Mr. Gladstone and Mr. 
Sexton. He has in more than one debate delivered the best 
speech in point of matter and of form. His was the best 
speech in the strange debate which occurred under Mr. 
O'Donnell's suspension for his attacks on M. Clallamel- 
Lacour, and his was the most effective of the many effective 
replies given to Mr. Forster's historic attack on Mr. Parnell. 
Mr. McCarthy in one style of speech was far and away supe- 
rior to any of his party, and probably to any man in the House 
—that is, as an after-dinner speaker. He bubbled over with 
wit of the most delicate and playful kind, and could keep the 
table in a roar. Finally, let this sketch of Mr. McCarthy's 
be closed with the mention of the saddest and darkest pages of 
his life. Just as his long struggle was crowned with success, 
and as he became from the poor and obscure reporter the 
popular novelist, the successful historian and the Member of 
Parliament, the woman without whom he would have re- 
mained, in all probability poor and obscure to the end, was 
seized with a lingering illness and died. It would be unbe- 
coming to even attempt a description of what his loss meant 
to Mr. McCarthy. Few can paint a character completely, and 
it is acquaintance only with Mr. McCarthy that can make in- 
telligible the peculiarly strong hold he had over the af- 
fections and admiration of his intimates. It is not often 
that there are found united in the same man modesty and 
literary genius, a toleration of others with a power of abso- 
lute self-abnegation, a sane enjoyment of every hour, with the 
courage of calmly facing, for the sake of the right cause, 
fortunes worst blows. Destiny's most cruel decree. Moderate 
in advice, when the fortunes of his country are at stake, he 
was always boldest when acts involved only personal risks to 
himself. It was this curious mixture of tenderness, shyness, 
and almost feminine romanticism with a thoroughly mas- 
culine and fearless spirit that made him so beloved. There is 
something incomplete, says the French epigram, in the noble 
life that does not end on the scaffold, in the prison, or on the 
battlefield. May Justin McCarthy have many and prosperous 
days, and a tranquil and honorable end! But it is almost a 
pity that he cannot be hanged for high treason, to show how 
calmly a quiet man could die for Ireland. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

THOMAS SEXTON, IRELAND'S SILVEE-TONGUED ORATOE. 

In the debates of the meeting at the City Hall Mr. Thomas 
Sexton broke silence for only a few minutes. Nobody conld 
help remarking that his voice was peculiarly melodious, but 
few had any conception of the great things that were in this 
thin, delicate, rather retiring man. 

Thomas Sexton was born in Waterford in 1848. He had 
not yet reached his thirteenth birthday when he entered a 
competition for a clerkship in the Secretary's office of the 
Waterford and Limerick Company. The post was naturally 
unimportant; the salary, of course, small; but that did not 
prevent thirty youths entering the lists. Of these Sexton 
was the youngest, but he obtained the first place. He re- 
mained in the Secretary's office till he was between twenty 
and twenty-one years of age, when, as will be seen, he left his 
native town, drawn to Dublin, like most young men of ability 
and enterprise. The influence of his many years of dry toil 
in an office is visible in Sexton to-day. It has often been re- 
marked that he has what is considered an un-Irish talent of 
dealing readily, clearly, and accurately with figures. This 
is no new talent. When he was in the railway office in Wa- 
terford his friends used to amuse themselves by giving him 
a long sum in compound addition, which most people would 
find it hard to calculate rapidly even with the aid of pen and 
ink. Sexton would close his eyes, and in a few minutes would 
give the answer with invariable accuracy. He used to say 
that the figures were '^written on his brain." Sir George 
Trevelyan once brought in a bill to increase official pay, and, 
speaking within a few minutes after the Chief's Secretary 
had concluded, Sexton was able to tell almost to a penny 
what the sum total meant to each individual, and was com- 
plimented by Sir George on his accuracy. But Sexton had 
another life besides that of the railway official. In his boy- 
hood days there was still a good deal of literary and social 
activity in the Irish provincial towns. The Mechanics' In- 
stitute and the Catholic Young Men's Society were both flour- 
ishing institutions in Waterford, and Sexton soon became the 

648 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 649 

most prominent figure in botli. He established a debating 
society, lectured when he was but sixteen on Oliver Goldsmith 
and John Banim, and on one occasion did duel in the Town 
Law with a delegation from the Portland Debating Society— 
a neighboring rival— on the still vexed question of emigra- 
tion. It speaks well for their instinctive appreciation of 
genius that the people of Waterf ord did not allow Sexton to 
leave their town, though he was but twenty-one years of age, 
altogether unnoticed. A public dinner was held in his honor 
and he received addresses from the societies in which he had 
figured so largely. 

This was the end of Sexton as a public speaker for a long 
series of years. In Dublin, where he arrived in 1869, he at 
once became leader writer on the Nation, then, as so long 
before, the most outspoken advocate of the Nationalist prin- 
ciples. Sexton also in time became editor of the Weekly 
News and of Young Ireland, two publications also issued from 
the Nation office. Immersed in these things, and of the tem- 
perament shy and easy-going, Sexton never sought or even 
accepted any opportunity of displaying his oratorical pow- 
ers. He took his share in all the ISTational movements, but 
it was as a silent and unknown member of those committees 
which do the practical work and leave the speechmaking to 
others. Probably there was not one even of his intimates 
who suspected that this retiring litterateur, fond of his cigar, 
of pleasant company, and of prolonged vigils, would ever 
have the courage to face an audience larger than the petit 
comite which his wit— sly, delicate, slightly cynic— used to 
delight. But in 1879, the year of the Land League and of 
revolutionary upheaval. Sexton was brought at last, and al- 
most in spite of himself, into the stormy arena of public life. 
In 1879 he was sent by the council of the Land League to ad- 
dress a meeting in Dromore West, County Sligo. To the credit 
of the people there, be it said that his speech made a profound 
impression, and that his great gifts received immediate recog- 
nition. But Dublin still did not know him; and when the 
general election came he went very near being excluded from 
the ranks of the new Parliamentarians. He was proposed 
for his native county, but he was withdrawn; and when he 
was sent to Sligo he had to overcome many difficulties, and 
even friends, though an attack by so young and so obscure a 
man on a great magnate like Colonel King-Harman was a 



650 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and RosesJ 

hopeless enterprise. But Sexton stumpGd thecounty, roused 
enthusiasm everywhere, and drove Colonel King-Harman 
from the seat in Parliament. Sexton again showed no anx- 
iety to push himself prematurely forward. During his first 
session of Parliament he remained, comparatively speaking, 
unnoticed. He was phenomenally constant in attendance, and 
he was in the habit of putting what, in these early days of the 
new Irish Party, was considered a very large number of 
questions. But nobody yet had any idea that there was any- 
thing in him above very earnest and very respectable medi- 
ocrity, nor during the recess which followed did he advance 
his position to any appreciable degree. He was certainly one 
of the most constant among the speakers of the Land League 
meetings throughout the country; but tTiis fact, while it pro- 
cured him the notice of the Government, so far that he was 
included in the famous trial of the traversers, did not have 
any perceptible effect upon his own political fortunes. It 
was on an evening when Mr. Forster's Coercion Bill was un- 
der discussion that Sexton broke upon the House for the first 
time as a great orator. The House was, when he rose, but 
ill-prepared, indeed, for a patient acceptance of any speech 
from an Irish Member, for, of the subjects, it was already 
sick to death; and the final outcome was as predestined as 
the procession of the earth through the regions of the air. 
The physical circumstances of the moment tended to increase 
the prevalent depression, for it was a dull, dark, dismal even- 
ing. The House was, therefore, listless, somber and but thin- 
ly filled when Sexton rose. He spoke for two hours, not amid 
the enthusiastic plaudits which greet a powerful exponent 
of a great party's principles, but amid chilling silence, in- 
terrupted occasionally by the thin cheers of the small group 
of Irishmen around him— and yet when he sat down the whole 
House instinctively felt that a great orator had appeared 
among them. In the London newspapers the speech was re- 
ported in but a few lines. But Members talked of it in the 
lobby and the smoke-room; Sir Stafford Northcote was re- 
ported to have praised it highly, and, among members of 
the house of Commons, at least, Sexton's reputation was es- 
tablished. In the councils of his party the voice of Sexton 
has always been for good sense. Sagacity is, indeed, the very 
soul of his oratory. To think of him merely as the eloquent 
speaker is to forget that still greater claim to respect he holds 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 651 

as a man of remarkably well balanced mind, of keen and al- 
most faultless judgment. To describe the characteristics of 
Sexton's oratory is a task of extreme difficulty. He can mar- 
shal facts ; he can discuss figures with the dryest statistician, 
and can balance argument with the most logic-chopping mem- 
ber of the House, and he can, at the same time, invest every 
subject with the glory of splendid language. For the rest. 
Sexton is a keen observer, and his reading of men's motives 
is helped by a slight dash of cynicism. In ordinary affairs 
blase and physically lethargic, his political industry is mar- 
vellous. He enters the House of Commons when the speaker 
takes the chair and never leaves it until the door-keeper's 
cry of ''Who goes homeT' is heard. He sits in his place 
during all those long hours, grudging the time he spends at 
a hasty dinner— practically the one meal he takes in the day 
— or the minutes he gives to the smoking of the dearly loved 
cigar. Before he goes down to the House he has mastered 
all the business of the day, and his breakfast is of Blue Books. 
Orderly in many of his habits, he rarely approaches the dis- 
cussion of any question without full knowledge of all the facts 
carefully arranged and abundantly illustrated by letters or 
other documents. He has great mastery of detail. Prob- 
ably he was the only one, except Sir Charles Dilke, who knew 
all the figures connected with the Eedistribution Bill. With 
every measure that in the least degree concerns Ireland he is 
acquainted down to the last clause, and thus it is that he en- 
ters on all debates with a singularly complete equipment. 
Finally, his mind is extraordinarily alert. His opponent has 
scarcely sat down when he is on his feet with counter-argu- 
ments to meet even the plausible case that has been made 
against him. It seems impossible to take him unawares, and 
words come without hesitation to express every shade of 
meaning. This gift, aided by sangfroid, makes him a most 
formidable opponent, and even the speaker, backed by all the 
new rules of the House and his own large and generous in- 
terpretation of his powers, has had more than once to suc- 
cumb before the ready answer and cool temper of Mr. Sex- 
ton. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

THE ROMANTIC HISTORY OF ARTHUR o'cONNOK. 

Not one man in a thousand would have ever guessed when 
he heard Mr. Arthur O'Connor addressing the House of 
Commons that he had a drop of Irish blood in his veins. The 
whole air of the member for Queens County is rigid, serious, 
icy. He drops his words with calculated slowness, and the 
subjects he selects for treatment are dry and formal and sta- 
tistical; the subjects, in short, which are supposed to at- 
tract the plodding mind of the typical Englishman. 

The physique of Arthur 'Connor, too, suggests the same 
idea of a calmness and unemotional self-control which an 
Irishman is rarely supposed to possess ; he is tall, thin, with a 
sombre air and a cold, dark-blue eye. But to those who have 
learned to know him all these outward presentments are but 
a mask ; in the whole of the Irish Party— with all its fierce and 
strange spirits— there is not one whose heart beats with emo- 
tion so profound, with a hatred so fierce, a holy rage so lethal. 
The keen analysis of the French mind has divided enthusi- 
asm into two kinds— the enthusiasm that is warm and the 
enthusiasm that is cold. The enthusiasm of Arthur O'Con- 
nor is of the cold, that is, of the perilous, type. 

Arthur O'Connor was born in London on October 1st, 1844. 
His father was a County Kerry man, and was for many years 
one of the most eminent physicians, and at the same time one 
of the best-known figures in the social life of London. Ar- 
thur was educated at Ushaw, and in the year 1863 began life 
for himself by competing for a clerkship in the War Office. 
There was but one vacancy, and there were thirty competi- 
tors; O'Connor got the place, obtaining a higher average of 
marks than any Civil Service competitor for many years. 
For the &pace of sixteen years the young Irishman led the 
dull, sombre, montonous life of the Civil Servant in the 
gloomy building in Pall Mall. He was a model clerk in be- 
ing always accurate, attentive, hardworking ; there never was, 
and there never could be, a charge of a single act of neglect of 
duty, or stupidity, during the entire period. But outside his 
office Arthur 'Connor was the most unclerklike of men. He 

652 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 653 

had political opinions, and political opinions of the most un- 
popular, the most unfashionable, above all the most unprofit- 
able, character. An effusive and unmeaning address to some 
monarchial personage was once being hawked around the 
War Office; it came in the end to Arthur O'Connor's desk. 
**If you don't take that away," said O'Connor to the gentle- 
man who was collecting signatures, '^ before I county twenty 
I will put it into the fire. ' ' Then he not only professed Irish 
National principles, but he joined an Irish organization, and 
in time became one of its rulers; for he was elected a mem- 
ber of the executive of the Home Rule Confederation. 

Finally he began to be seen in the lobby in the House of 
Commons in earnest and frequent colloquy with Mr. Par- 
nell, and the whisper went abroad that the statistical cl^rk 
was priming the Irish agitator with obstructive powder and 
shot. In this connection it may be just as well to make the 
passing observation that O'Connor never on a single occa- 
sion told Mr. Parnell even one word in reference to matters 
which official honor called upon him to keep private. Ar- 
thur O'Connor was by no means anxious to remain in his 
dingy rooms in ?all Mall. Under a scheme of reorganiza- 
tion an offer was made to him, as well as to other clerks, to 
retire if he chose. He did so choose, and shook the dust of the 
War Office from his feet. 

He had already given a taste of his quality as a political 
gladiator in minor theatres, and the poor-law guardian in his 
case was veritably the father of the member of Parliament. 
In 1879 he was elected member of the Chelsea Board of Guard- 
ians, and the main purpose which he and his friends had in 
getting this place was that he might look after Catholic in- 
terests. These interests did, indeed, stand in need of some 
advocate. For six months not one of the Catholic inmates 
of the workhouse had been allowed to go out to Mass, either 
on a Sunday or on a holiday; nor was a Catholic priest per- 
mitted to enter the place ; no Catholic prayer-books were given 
to be read, and the Catholic children were sent to Protestant 
schools; and, finally, the institution was not stained by hav- 
ing a single ''Romanist"— as the phrase went in the vocabu- 
lary of the Board— among its officials. On the very first day 
on which O'Connor took his seat the most eligible of all the 
applicants for the humble position of ''scrubber" was re- 
jected on the sole ground that he was a Catholic. This was 



654 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the large and complete penal code whicli the new member 
set out to destroy, and the task seemed certainly audacious 
and desperate enough. The Board consisted of twenty mem- 
bers. 'Connor was the single Catholic in the whole number 
—it was one man against nineteen. O'Connor started on his 
enterprise in a characteristic fashion. He was not aggres- 
sive in manner, nor violent in language ; he made no speeches, 
either strong or long, nor did he, on the other hand, intrigue, 
or smile, or coax. He relied on two weapons alone— the wea- 
pons of knowledge and of hard work. He first mastered the 
whole complicated system of the poor-law code ; after a while 
he had become such an expert in the law of the workhouse, 
and was withal so calm and so composed that his fellow- 
guardians abandoned any attempt to trip him up. 

But this was only a small part of O'Connor's work. He 
had been elected a member of the General Purposes Com- 
mittee—this was when he was still an unknown quantity to 
his fellow-guardians— and the General Purposes was the 
committee which had the contracts to give and to examine, 
which dealt with accounts and other matters of high import 
in the economy of the workhouse. O'Connor devoted days 
and weeks to the study of all these accounts, with the result 
that he knew every item as intimately as if he had to pay it 
out of his own pocket. This was of all forms of knowledge 
the one which made O'Connor most formidable. It became 
impossible for a penny to pass muster for which full and sat- 
isfactory explanation was not given; jobbery trembled be- 
neath the pitiless eye of this cold and calm inquisitor, and 
rogues fled abashed. All this could not be accomplished with- 
out terribly hard work. The meeting of the General Pur- 
poses Committee and of the Board was on the same day- 
Wednesday— and every Wednesday, as inevitable as night or 
death, O'Connor was in his place on the Committee and the 
Board; and though this work often extended continuously 
from ten o'clock in the morning till eight at night, with the 
exception of half an hour for lunch, in his place he remained 
all the time. The Board was shocked at this indecent scrupu- 
lousness, this shocking conscientiousness, this rude industry, 
and disappointed jobbers began to ask how it was that a man 
could at the same time perform efficiently the duties of a Civil 
Servant and a poor-law guardian. ''How," asked a guard- 
ian, ''could Mr. O'Connor attend every Wednesday, without 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 655 

exception, from ten to eight, without neglecting his official 
duties for at least one clay in the week?" This guardian re- 
solved to have the matter out, and proposed a resolution call- 
ing the attention of the Secretary for War to the conduct 
of the War Office clerk. The gentleman's disgust may be 
imagined when Mr. O'Connor himself stood up to second the 
resolution; and so had it laughed out of court. O'Connor 
had nothing to fear from any investigation by the War Sec- 
retary, or anybody else, for he had not neglected his official 
duties; he had not lost one single day, and the manner in 
which he carried out this programme will indicate the kind 
of a man he is. In the War Office, as in the other Civil Ser- 
vice departments, each clerk is entitled to a month 's vacation, 
and this vacation he is generally allowed to take at such times 
as he may wish. He may take it in a continuous month, or 
in a week now and a week again, or even by days if he likes. 
Now, the year of the War Office began in January; that of 
the Board of Guardians some months subsequently ; the poor- 
law, therefore, overlapped the year of the War Office. Thus 
O'Connor was able to take the War Office vacation of two 
years within the single year of the Board; and his two years' 
vacation were the Wednesdays which he spent at the Board 
of Guardians. The men are not many who would seek recre- 
ation, rest, enjoyment in ten hours' work every Wednesday 
of every week, and in work without pay, without glory, and 
entirely for the benefit of the poorest and lowliest of mankind. 
Never was reformer so completely and so rapidly successful. 
He was but one year a member of the Board of Guardians— 
the combined forces of bigotry and jobbery took care that 
he should not be elected a second time. As has been said, he 
was one Catholic against nineteen Protestants, most of them 
bigoted Protestants, too; and at the end of that year every 
Catholic could go to church on Sunday or holiday; the Cath- 
olic priest was admitted to the workhouse once a week to in- 
struct the inmates; the Catholic prayer-books were distrib- 
uted in the same way as Protestants'; Catholic children were 
sent to Catholic schools; in short, of the vast multitude of 
Catholic grievances not one remained unredressed. And yet 
all this had been accomplished without a departure, perhaps, 
for one second on the part of O'Connor from his cold, calm 
delivery; without one violent word, with that exterior and 



656 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

perfect and, on occasion, almost genial courtesy, under which 
lay concealed fierce passion and relentless purpose.,, 

Arthur O'Connor's part in Parliament has beexi such as 
one might have anticipated from his previous career. He 
at once devoted himself to the work which was sorest and 
most uninviting; had acquired in a short time a knowledge 
so intimate of the rules of the House as to he a terror to all 
speakers, and was a more potent, more dangerous, a more 
detailed critic of the Estimates than Parnell or Biggar in 
their palmiest and most active days. It is curious to see 
O'Connor enter the House with a bundle of notes, which ap- 
parently must have consumed days in their preparation; to 
hear him put Mr. Courtney to shame as he describes the ex- 
travagant wages of a charwoman in the Foreign Office, and 
to bring confusion to the mind of the First Commissioner of 
Works as he dilates on the bad quality of the mortar in the 
last repairs of a Eoyal palace. All this is done with an air 
of unbroken severity, but, at the same time, of unruffled tem- 
per and of inflexible courtesy. 'Connor is the calm, patient, 
lofty spirit of economy that chides, but pities, and that speaks 
in the accents of sorrow rather than of anger. At some mo- 
ments it is an explanation which O'Connor prays for with 
his inimitable air of sad deference. A small speech is re- 
quired, of course, to preface the inquiry. The Minister hav- 
ing answered, a second speech is necessary in order to have 
a further word on just a trifling little difficulty that still re- 
mains to disturb O'Connor's mind. Then the Minister again 
explains, and O'Connor, now fully satisfied, has to express 
his gratitude and content ; and the expression of his gratitude 
and content requires a third speech. And thus it goes on 
hour after hour— O'Connor, calm, differential, appallingly in- 
quisitive, miraculously omniscent— the Minister restless, apol- 
ogetic, divided between the desire to swear and the dread of 
its consequences— with the result that, when the night is over, 
the Treasury has got about one out of the fifteen votes it 
hoped to carry. Work of this kind, constantly done by such 
men as O'Connor and Biggar— and in former days by gal- 
lant Lysaght Finigan— is and can never be reported, is 
rarely even described, is rarely even heard of, but it is 
willingly, patiently, relentlessly, continuously going through 
the hideous drudgery of unrecognized toil like this that such 
men show the depths of their self-devotion, the reality and 



Ibeland's Constitutional Battle 



G57 



earnestness of their self-forgetfnlness. With the doubtful 
exception of Mr. Parnell, Arthur O'Connor has the most thor- 
oughly and the best House-of-Commons style in the party. 
Clear, deliberate, passionless in language, gesture, delivery, 
he is the very best model of an official speaker. The narrow 
limits within which he confines himself do injustice to his 
powers. The only occasion on which he did prominently 
enter into general debate was on the Bradlaugh question, and 
his answer to Mr. Bright on that occasion suggested possi- 
bilities of sober but lofty eloquence. 

Finally, the sternness of Mr. O'Connor's faith does not 
prevent him from being one of the kindliest companions, one 
of the most tolerant and even-tempered counsellors; though 
he has much of the antique Roman, he has much also of the 
social charms of the modern Irishman. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER XV. 

INTERESTING ACCOUNT OP T. D. SULLIVAN, AUTHOR OF IRELAND 's 
NATIONAL ANTHEM, '^GOD SAVE IRELAND.'' 

Timothy Daniel Sullivan was born in 1827. The home 
of the Sullivans was thoroughly National, and amid the stir- 
ring times of 1848 and the hideous disasters of the two pre- 
ceding years there were all the circumstances to make the 
national faith of the family bitter and robust. The father 
was carried away, like the majority of the earnest and ener- 
getic Irishmen of that time, by the Gospel which the young 
Ireland leaders were preaching with such fascination of voice 
and pen, became one of the leaders of the local '48 club, and, 
as a reward, was dismissed from his employment by one of 
the local magistrates. T. D. Sullivan, like the rest of his 
brothers, though brought up in a small and remote town, had 
an opportunity of receiving a good education in the best 
sense of the word, and the family was essentially literary as 
well as National in its tendencies. The Sullivans were close- 
ly associated with another Bantry household, which was des- 
tined by-and-by to give a prominent figure to the Irish his- 
tory of the present day. The chief and best schoolmaster 
of the town was Mr, Healy, the grandfather of the two mem- 
bers of the present House of Commons of the same name. 
It was from Mr. Healy that Mr. Sullivan learned probably 
the most of what he knows. The ties between the two fam- 
ilies were afterwards drawn still closer when T. D. Sulli- 
van married Miss Kate Healy, the daughter of his teacher. 
Though A. M. Sullivan was younger than T. D., he was first 
to leave home and seek fortune abroad. After trying his 
hand as an artist, A. M. ultimately adopted journalism as 
a profession, and became connected with the Dublin Nation. 
T. D. meantime had also allowed his mind to run into dreams 
of a literary future, and had filled a whole volume with his 
compositions; but, with the secrecy which youth loves, he 
had not confided his transgression to anyone. Two or three 
of the pieces had appeared in the print, but it was not till he 
came to Dublin and began to write in the Nation that the 
poetical genius of T. D. Sullivan sought recognition. Into 

658 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 659 

the columns of that journal he began at once to ponr the 
verses which he had hitherto so religiously kept secret, and 
from the first his songs attracted attention. From this time 
forward the name of T. D. Sullivan is inextricably associated 
with the Nation. 

Though T. D. Sullivan has written love poems and tender 
elegies, his preference has always been for the muse that 
stirs and cheers. Many of his poems became popular imme- 
diately on their appearance, and spread over that vast world 
of the Irish race which now extends through so many of the 
nations of the earth. A well-known story with regard to the 
''Song from the Backwoods" will illustrate the influence of 
T. D. Sullivan's muse. Irishmen know that splendid little 
poem, with its bold opening, and its splendid refrain: 

Deep in Canadian woods we've met, 

From one bright island flown ; 
Great is the land we tread, but yet 

Our hearts are with our own. 
And ere we leave this shanty small, 
While fades the autumn day, 
We'll toast old Ireland! 
Dear old Ireland! 
Ireland, boys, hurrah! 

The song, which was published in the Nation in 1857, first 
became popular among the members of the Phoenix Society— 
who, it will be remembered, were at work in 1858— and was 
carried to America by Captain M. J. Downing, one of the 
association. It rapidly became popular, both among the Fe- 
nians, who were beginning to be organized, and among the 
Irish soldiers who were fighting in the American army. 
Every man of the Irish Brigade knew it, and it was often sung 
at the bivouac fire after a hard day's fighting. An extraordi- 
nary instance of its popularity was given by a writer, sign- 
ing himself "Eomeo," in the New York Irish People of March 
9th, 1867. ''On the night," he writes, "of the bloody bat- 
tle of Fredericksburg the federal army lay sleepless and 
watchful on their arms, with spirits damped by the loss of 
so many gallant comrades. To cheer his brother-officer Cap- 
tain Downing sang his favorite song. The chorus of the first 
stanza was taken up by his dashing regiment, next by the 



660 Ireland s CROvm of Thorns and Roses 

brigade, next by the division, then by tbe entire line of the 
army for six miles along the river; and when the Captain 
ceased it was but to listen with indefinable feelings to the 
chant that came like an echo from the Confederate lines on 
the opposite shore of 

''Dear Old Ireland, 
Brave Old Ireland, 
Ireland, boys, hurrah!'* 

The song "God Save Ireland" became popular with even 
greater rapidity. It was issued at an hour when all Ireland 
was stirred to intenser depths of anger and of sorrow than 
perhaps at any single moment in the last quarter of a cen- 
tury, and this profound and immense feeling longed for a 
voice. When "God Save Ireland" was produced the people 
at once took it up, and so instantaneously that the author him- 
self heard it sung and chorussed in a railway carriage on 
the very day after its publication in the Nation. 

On several other occasions the pen of T. D. Sullivan has 
given popular expression to popular sentiment. It has been 
his invariable rule in composing these songs to make them 
"ballads" in true sense of the word— songs, that is to say, 
that expressed popular sentiment in the language of every- 
day life, that had good, catching rhymes, and that could be 
easily sung. 

It will not be necessary to write at any length of the Par- 
liamentary career of T. D. Sullivan. He was elected, as is 
known, along with Mr. H. J.Gill, for County Westmeath, at the 
general election of 1880; and, in spite of the absorbing na- 
ture of his journalistic duties, he has been one of the most 
active and one of the most attentive members of the party. 
He has been, perhaps, still more prominent on the platform, 
and it is at large Irish popular gatherings that his speech is 
most effective. He is Irish of the Irish, and expresses the 
deep and simple gospel of the people in language that goes 
home, and then his keen sense of humor enables him to sup- 
ply that element of amusement which is always looked for- 
ward to with eagerness by the crowd. He often lights up 
his Parliamentary, like his conversational, efforts with bright 
flashes of wit. Speaking of special clauses in the Crimes 
Act for the protection of certain humble agents of the law 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 661 

one night, he declared, ''There's a divinity doth hedge a bail- 
iff rough h'use him how we will." ''Punctuality," he said 
once to a colleague who turned up at a meeting with charac- 
teristic lateness, "punctuality, in the opinion of the Irish 
Party, is the chief of time." 

It is when the county meeting is over and T. D. Sullivan 
sits amid a genial crowd of sympathetic friends that his best 
—certainly his mxost attractive— talents are seen. Like all 
the Sullivan family, he has plenty of musical ability, and, 
like poor A. M., has a splendid voice. A song by T. D. Sul- 
livan has never been really understood until it has been heard 
sung by T. D. himself. His voice— loud, clear, penetrating— 
easily leads the chorus, no matter how many voices join in, 
and he throws himself into the spirit of the thing with all his 
heart and soul. His singing of "Murty Hynes" is worth 
going many miles to hear. 

Such has been the career of T. D. Sullivan— honorable, 
consistent and tranquil. He has to-day the same convictions 
which guided his pen when he wrote surreptitious verses ; he 
has stood by these convictions through years of trial and fail- 
ure ; he is as fresh and as vigorous at pushing them forward 
at this hour, when his hairs are gray, as he was when he sailed 
in boyhood's auroral days over Bantry Bay. His verses have 
marked the epochs which they have helped to produce, have 
won the affection of millions of Irish hearts, and form one 
of the many potent chains of memory and love that bind the 
scattered children of the Celtic mother to their race and to 
their cradle-land. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

JAMES o'kELLY, traveller, SOLDIER, WRITER AND PATRIOT. 

James 'Kelly was born in Dublin in the year 1845. He 
made acquaintance at an early age with the passions which 
make the Irish patriot. Among his companions in the Irish 
metropolis were a number of young men who, even in the 
dark hours between '55 and '65, worked and hoped for the 
elevation of the country ; and, on the other hand, he learned in 
a school in London, in which he spent a part of his boyhood, 
the scorn that belongs to the child of a conquered race. 'Kel- 
ly accordingly entered upon political work at an unusually 
precocious age, and certainly had not reached his legal ma- 
jority when political aims had become the lode-star of his 
dreams. This was the dark period when the treason of Sad- 
leir and Keogh had broken all faith in Parliamentary and 
Constitutional agitation; and when Youth— especially if it 
had the mental and physical robustness of 'Kelly— was not 
inclined to listen to statistical comparisons between the re- 
sources of England and Ireland. The ' ' set " to which 'Kelly 
belonged were certainly arch-heretics against the orthodox 
creed of constitutionalism, and had made up their minds to 
set about the liberation of Ireland in quite a different kind 
of style. The companions with whom 'Kelly then mixed 
lived to try, and many of them to suffer for, their experi- 
ments. Many of them are dead. Some of them survive, and 
are to-day as active and as hopeful as if they had not passed 
through hideous suffering and abysmal disaster. 

In 1863 O 'Kelly was enrolled in the Foreign Legion in 
Paris, and was immediately called upon to enter into active 
service. The Arabs in the province of Oran were in rebel- 
lion, and here 'Kelly had an opportunity of learning all 
the wiles as well as all the dangers of Arabian waref are. The 
rebellion had scarcely been suppressed when the French army 
was called to another and very different scene of operations. 
Everybody remembers that when Maximilian was made Em- 
peror of Mexico French forces were sent by the Emperor 
Napoleon to win for his nominee his new dominion, and 
O 'Kelly's regiment was one of those which were detailed for 

662 



Ireiand's Constitutional Battle 663 

the service. In all the fighting which went on O 'Kelly had 
his share. 'Kelly was made prisoner by the forces of Gen- 
eral Canales in June, 1866. 'Kelly had now a period of re- 
straint, discomfort, possibly of danger, to look forward to; 
but an attempt to escape, unless successful, meant death. 
'Kelly decided to make a dash for liberty ; his guards proved 
careless, and in the darkness of the night he evaded their vigi- 
lance and rushed out into the Unknown. For days he had 
to wander about in hourly peril of his life. At one time he 
took to the river, hoping to float down to the point where 
Mexican territory joined the United States. The induce- 
ment to attempt this mode of escape was his discovery by the 
banks of the river of what is called a * ' dugout, ' ' a rude boat 
made from a hollowed tree, and in this primitive craft he 
floated with the stream for a day. He had at last to come 
to land, owing to the attentions of some Mexicans on the 
shore. They proved, however, not unfriendly, and finally 
'Kelly made his way into Texas. On American soil he was 
once more a free man, but that was the end of his blessings. 
He had not a cent; his clothes, after his many days of wan- 
dering, were ragged; and who looks so disreputable as the 
soldier in a travel-stained uniform? However, 'Kelly man- 
aged to ''strike" a fellow-countryman, and was by him given 
a job. The job— historical accuracy is especially desirable 
in the biography of a soldier— was that of removing lumber. 
He managed finally to make his way to New York, and when 
he got there he was confronted with stirring news that led 
him for a while to the hope that the next time he went a-sol- 
diering it would be for his own land. 

The stories which were current in those days of the pos- 
sibilities and the resources for rebellion in Ireland have been 
described long since by many pens, and have produced a bit- 
terness of controversy that warns off any writer. Suffice it 
to say that 'Kelly did not find things as he expected, that 
he had seen too much of real warfare to have any faith in 
unarmed crowds, and that he was one of those who most 
fiercely opposed any attempt at insurrection. Everybody 
knows that these counsels did not then prevail, and that in 
1867 there came some sporadic risings, with their sad sequel 
of wholesale arrests, imprisonments, and long terms of penal 
servitude. For years 'Kelly had to pass through the daily 
and nightly risks, the never-ceasing strain, the strange un- 



664 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

derground life, of the revolntionaiy. 'Kelly passed through 
it all with calm courage and that cool-headedness which every- 
body recognizes, and, through determination, vigilance and 
prudence combined, succeeded in coming out unscathed. 
Again the French cause drew him into politics, and during 
the Franco-Prussian war he rejoined the French army; when 
Paris surrendered he once more left the French service. He 
then went to New York. Up to this time he had not seriously 
contemplated adopting journalism as a profession, and his 
efforts had been confined to occasional correspondence in the 
National weeklies. He applied for a situation on the New 
York Herald, and his application, like that of most begin- 
ners in all manners of life, was received coolly enough. At 
last, through the absence of all the regular employes of the 
journal on a special Sunday morning, 'Kelly got his oppor- 
tunity. General Sheridan was to arrive from Europe that 
morning, and there was a general anxiety to know what the 
American Napoleon had to say about the military resources 
and the military strategy of the old world. The task of in- 
terviewing so distinguished a soldier was a highly honorable 
one, but it had one great drawback ; General Sheridan was a 
man who was known to hold the ''interviewer" in mortal 
hate. There was a whole host of reporters on board the 
steamer which went out to meet the General. The competi- 
tion, therefore, was keen, with a keenness which nobody who 
has not been in America cannot completely understand. Each 
reporter, in his turn, tried his hand on the General, and each 
went back disappointed. At length 'Kelly made the at- 
tempt. He began his attack altogether out of the ordi- 
nary, mentioned places in France which the General, as well 
as he, had recently seen ; gave a military estimate or two, and 
in this way conveyed the impression to the General that he 
was something of a kindred spirit, and knew what he was 
talking about. The General unbent, and 'Kelly, who was 
the ''greenhorn," as newcomers are scornfully called, of the 
journalistic host, was the one who was able to give the best 
account of General Sheridan's views on his European tour. 

'Kelly, starting thus well, was gradually advanced, un- 
til he became one of the leader-writers— or "editors," as they 
are called in America— of the New York Herald. In 1873 
there arose an opportunity of making or marring his for- 
tune—an opportunity which 'Kelly gladly embraced, but 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 665 

which ninety-nine out of every hundred men would have ab- 
solutely and unhesitatingly rejected. The rebellion in Cuba 
was going on, and it was a movement in which the people of 
the United States took a keen interest, these being the days 
when the annexation of Cuba was one of the political possi- 
bilities and aspirations of the hour. But what was the na- 
ture, and what were the methods of the rebels? These were 
points upon which no trustworthy information could by any 
possibility be obtained. The Spaniards had the ear of the 
world, and the story they told was that there was no such 
thing as a rebellion at all. If there had ever been anything 
of the kind it was entirely crushed, and Cespedes, its leader, 
was dead. What now remained was simply a few scores of 
scattered maurauders, who were nothing but itinerant rob- 
bers and murderers. There was a strong conviction in the 
United States that these representations were not altogether 
to be relied on, and there were plenty of Cuban refugees and 
insurrectionary committees in the United States who circu- 
lated reports of quite a different character. It was said, for 
instance, that the Spanish troops were guilty of horrible cru- 
elties—that they gave no quarter to men and foully abused 
women; and the rebellion, instead of being repressed, was 
represented as fiercer and more determined than ever. But 
how were these statements to be confirmed? The rebels, 
whether few or many, were hidden behind the impenetrable 
forests of the Mambi Land (as the country frequented by 
them was called) as completely as if they had ceased to exist. 
To reach these rebels, survey their forces— in short, attest 
their existence— was the duty which 'Kelly volunteered to 
perform. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

o'kELLY in CUBA AND WITH THE SIOUX INDIANS. 

He knew that when he set out for Cuba his task was dif- 
ficult enough, but it was not until he arrived in Cuba that he 
realized to the full the meaning of his enterprise. He imag- 
ined that he might have been able to accompany the Span- 
ish troops, then to pass through their lines to the rebels, and, 
investigations among the latter being completed, to return to 
the Spanish lines again. He therefore asked a safe conduct 
from the Captain General, but that functionary soon made it 
apparent that nothing would induce him to facilitate 'Kel- 
ly's task in any way, and he plainly told him that if he per- 
sisted in trying to get to the rebels he would do so at his own 
risk. 'Kelly soon realized the true meaning of these words. 
Throughout all Cuba there was a perfect reign of terror. 
Tribunals hastily tried even those suspected of treason, and 
within a few hours after his arrest the ''suspect'* was a rid- 
dled corpse. Any person, therefore, who was under the 
frown of the authorities was avoided as if he had the plague. 
Thus 'Kelly was invited to dinner in the heartiest manner 
by a, descendant of an Irishman; but when this gentleman 
heard of 'Kelly's mission he begged him not to pay the 
visit, and promptly went to the Spanish authorities to ex- 
plain the unlucky invitation. ''It was not possible," writes 
O 'Kelly in "The Mambi Land," the interesting volume in 
which he afterwards recounted his adventures— "it was not 
possible to turn back without dishonor, and, though it cost 
even life itself, I would have to visit the Cuban camp." "My 
word," he says in another place, "had been given to accom- 
plish this, and at whatever cost it should be done," language 
that in the mouth of a man like 'Kelly really means to meet 
the worst that fortune could inflict. 

He made various efforts to accompany expeditions of the 
Spanish troops which were supposed to be marching against 
the insurgents, but these expeditions either were postponed 
or, after they had been started, turned back without even 
coming in sight of the rebel lines. Then 'Kelly thought that 
his purpose might be carried out if he got into communica- 

666 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 667 

tion with some of the secret sympathizers with the rebellion 
iwho remained in the towns; but they, carrying their lives 
every hour in their hands, would not trust a stranger. At 
last he formed the desperate resolve to set out for the rebel 
lines alone, with the chance of being shot by the Spaniards 
as a rebel, by the rebels as a Spaniard, through a country 
which in parts was supposed to be overrun by robbers, quite 
ready to murder, with impartial ferocity, Spaniard or rebel; 
and into the midst of almost impenetrable forest, where the 
loss of the trail meant death. But he had not proceeded far on 
his way when he was placed under arrest by the Spanish au- 
thorities. Then came an order which made the situation still 
more hopeless; the order was that under no circumstances 
should 'Kelly be permitted to penetrate to the rebel lines, 
and the penalty was affixed in no obscure language. Brought 
before General Morales, one of the Spanish authorities, 
'Kelly made the remark, ''I should regret very much if 
one of these days you should be obliged to shoot me." "1 
would regret it very much also," was the reply of the Span- 
iard, ''but if you are found in the insurgent lines or coming 
from them you will be treated as a spy or as one of the insur- 
gents"— in other words, shot. 

And still 'Kelly persevered. His plan was now to trust 
to the sympathizers with the rebellion ; and at last he found 
a letter on the floor of his room in the hotel one night telling 
him that if he would proceed to a certain point alone on the 
following day he would be conducted to the rebel lines. 'Kel- 
ly, armed with a couple of revolvers, set out the next day, 
reached the trysting-place, and after hours of waiting in the 
blackness of the night, was conducted into the rebel lines, 
saw General Cespedes, President of the Republic, and spent 
a month in marching and countermarching, and in generally 
studying the resources, the customs and the prospects of the 
rebels. His task he had now succeeded in accomplishing, 
though every other person attempting it had failed. He had 
ascertained the existence and estimated the chance of the 
rebels, and the only thing now left for him was to return to 
America. Cespedes offered to send him home by Jamaica, 
but 'Kelly thought it necessary to go into the Spanish lines 
in order that there might be no possibility of a denial that 
he had actually entered the rebel camp. He had scarcely re- 
turned to the settlements of the Spaniards when he was 



t>68 Ireland's Crown op Thorns and Roses 

thrown into a dungeon in a fortress, where the stench was 
terrible, his only companion a forger ; and he was convinced 
that the object of his captors was, if they could not shoot him, 
to kill him through scarlet fever. For weeks he was daily 
tortured while in this den by inquisitions and threats of im- 
mediate persecution, alternating with tempting offers of large 
bribes and immediate release if he would betray the men who 
had helped him to reach the Cuban lines. In time he was 
removed to another prison, bound with ropes as he was con- 
veyed there. In this guise he reached Havana, and there 
again he was incarcerated in a cell— this time of such sick- 
ening odor that he had to fly continually to the grated door in 
the hope of breathing a little fresh air. It was evident that 
the Spanish authorities were thoroughly bent on inducing 
his death from yellow fever. He escaped all these perils, 
however, was sent to Spain, and then, through the united ef- 
forts of General Sickles, Senor Castlelar, and Isaac Butt, was 
set at liberty. 

Later on, in the war with Sitting Bull and the Sioux In- 
dians, an expedition of considerable peril, 'Kelly remained 
throughout the business, until Sitting Bull was driven to 
take refuge in Canada. More recently 'Kelly conceived 
the bold idea of reaching the Mahdi. The continued obstacles 
which were placed in his way frustrated his object, but he 
did not abandon his purpose until he had adopted many ex- 
pedients of characteristic daring and adroitness. The let- 
ters which he contributed to the Daily News excited much 
attention, and were the first to throw any light upon the char- 
acter and strength of the movement of the Mahdi. With sin- 
gular accuracy he pointed out the future of the movement, and 
some time later, in a series of articles in the Freeman's Jour- 
nal, on the strategy of Lord Wolseley, he forecasted the perils 
and the final failure of the campaign with striking truth. He 
writes with the bold, slightly rugged, realistic pen of the spe- 
cial correspondent diverted to journalism from his true avo- 
cation as a soldier. Though he has given proof so abundant 
of a courage that dares all, 'Kelly's advice has always been 
on the side of well-calculated rather than rash courses; he 
has, in fact, the true soldier's instinct in favor of the adapta- 
Ition of ways and means to ends, of mathematical severity in es- 
timating the strength of the forces, for and of the forces 
against his own side. He is, like so many men, a bundle of con- 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 



669 



tradictions. His whole temperament is revolutionary; he 
chafes under the restraints of Parliamentary life, and hates 
the weary contests of words ; and, on the other hand, he in- 
sists on every step being measured, every move calculated. 
A friend jokingly described him once as the ^'Whig rebel." 
Again, his large experience of life and the ruggedness of his 
sense give to his thoughts the mode of almost cynic realism, 
and yet he is an idealist of the first water, for throughout his 
whole life he has held to the idea of his country's resurrec- 
tion with a fanatical faith which no danger could terrify, no 
disaster depress, no labor fatigue. And it is a steady though 
silent laborer for the elevation of his people that 'Kelly 
would himself wish to be remembered. ^'My best work," he 
wrote to a friend, '^was not the showy pages which have 
caught the general eye, but rather the quiet political work 
which I have done for the last twenty years. To the mere 
sabreur's part of my life I attach no importance whatever, 
except that within certain limits it has furnished me with 
the opportunity of observing men and acquainting myself 
with the motive forces which induce men to do or not to do. ' ' 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

JOHN DILLON AND HIS PATKIOTIC FAMILY. 

Mr. Dillon, as so often happens, is tlie very opposite in ap- 
pearance and manner from what the readers of his speeches, 
especially the hostile readers, would expect. He came in the 
course of time to be regarded by large sections of the English 
people as the embodiment of everything that was brutal and 
sanguinary in the Irish nature. He was accustomed during 
the fierce days of the Land League to the most violent de- 
nunciation, and he was daily in receipt of letters of menace 
or of insult. To those who know him this popular image 
was grotesquely inaccurate. Tall, thin, frail, his physique 
was that of a man who has periodically to seek flight from 
death in change of scene and of air. His face was long and 
narrow, the features singularly delicate and refined. Coal- 
black hair and large, dark tranquil eyes made up a face that 
immediately arrested attention, and that could never be for- 
gotten. A stranger would guess that Mr. Dillon was an ar- 
tist of the school that found delight in painting Madonnas, 
that spoke of the pursuit of art for art's sake alone, with a sub- 
lime unconcern for the struggles and aims and welfare of the 
workaday world. A tranquil voice and a gentle manner would 
further combat the idea that this was one of the protagonists 
in one of the fiercest struggles of modern days. The speeches 
of Mr. Dillon were violent in their conclusions only. The prop- 
ositions which startled or shocked unsympathetic hearers were 
reached by him through calculations of apparently mathemat- 
ical frigidity, and were delivered in an unimpassioned mono- 
tone. 

John Dillon is the son of Mr. John Blake Dillon, one of the 
bravest and purest spirits in the Young Ireland movement. 
His father was one of those who opposed the rising to the 
last moment as imprudent and hopeless, and then was among 
the first to risk liberty and life when it was finally resolved 
upon. John was born in Blackrock, County Dublin, in the 
year 1851. He never went to a boarding-school, and prob- 
ably he owes more of his education to home than to other in- 
fluences. He was mainly instructed in the institutions con- 

670 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 671 

neeted with the Catholic University, first in the University, 
school in Harcout street, Dublin, and afterwards in the Uni- 
versity buildings in Stephen's Green. He was intended for 
the medical profession, passed through his course of lectures, 
and took the degree of Licentiate in the College of Surgeons. 
His entrance into political struggle was not precocious. It 
was not until after the arrival of John Mitchell in Ireland 
to fight the Tipperary struggle after his many years of ex- 
ile that Dillon first appeared in the political arena. Mitchell 
had been one of the earliest companions of his father, and 
John Dillon was among those who went down to Queenstown 
to bid a welcome to Ireland to the returning and still unre- 
pentant rebel. He then took an active part in the electoral 
contest, and helped to get Mitchell returned. The rise of 
Mr. Parnell and the active policy brought Mr. Dillon more 
prominently to the front. He was one of the first to appreci- 
ate correctly the new policy, and to see the road to salvation 
to which it pointed the way. At once he became an eager 
advocate of Mr. Parnell and his policy. This brought him 
into direct collision with Mr. Isaac Butt, and his was the 
fiercest and most damaging speech made against the old lead- 
er in the Molesworth Hall meeting, at which Butt made his 
last political speech. When the Land League movement was 
started Dillon at once threw himself into the agitation, and 
was appointed to accompany Mr. Parnell on his historic visit 
to America. 

There were many other members at the meeting in the City 
Hall whose history would throw light upon the circumstances 
and tendencies of Irish life, social and political, but we have 
not space to give them more than a few passing words. Eich- 
ard Power, who was elected in 1874, when he was barely of 
age, was a member of a Waterford family which has played 
a prominent and often a romantic part in Irish history for 
centuries. Eichard Lalor, one of the members for Queen's 
County, represented a family ancient in Irish struggle. His 
father was one of the fierce spirits that led the move- 
ment against the tithes, and for many years was the fore- 
most man in every political effort in Queen's County. James 
Finton Lalor, his brother, was perhaps the most truly revo- 
lutionary temperament of '48. He lives again in the pages of 
Duffy, and he it was who suggested to Mitchell the No Eent 
movement, which Mitchell is alleged to have spoiled, and 



672 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



which for the first time was carried into effect more than 
a quarter of a century after Finton Lalor's fiery and restless 
spirit had passed to rest. Another brother, who sought a 
home in Australia, was the leader in a small insurrection at 
Ballarat, and there lost an arm. When the reforms he fought 
for were granted he became one of the rulers of the country, 
and afterwards Speaker of the Victorian Parliament. Eich- 
ard was one of the same stern spirit as all of his stock. In 
1848 he had his pike and his thousands of pikemen ready for 
action, and was until the last the unconquerable and irre- 
claimable rebel— the Blanqui of Irish politics. 




Composed fromlBopk of Kells. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE o'gORMAN MAHON, GAEEETT BYRNE, AND EDWARD DWYER GRAY. 

The 'Gorman Mahon, to whom was entrusted the duty 
of proposing the name of Mr. Parnell as chairman of the 
Irish Party belonged to even an older agitation. Tall, erect 
as a pine, with huge masses of perfectly white hair and a 
leonine face, he was the majestic relic of a stormy and glori- 
ous youth. He was the last survivor of the once multi- 
tudinous race of the Irish gentleman, as ready with his 
pistol as with his tongue. Nobody could enumerate the 
number of times he was "out" and the still larger num- 
ber of occasions in which he dispatched or received the 
cartel. A man of the spirit of The 'Gorman Mahon was 
necessary in such times as those of his youth. The Irish 
Catholic was still an unemancipated serf, and the Lords of 
Ascendency looked down upon him with the contempt of cen- 
turies of unbroken sway. It was at such a time that the 
swaggering adherent of English domination had to be met by 
a representative of the ancient faith and of the hidden long- 
ings of the oppressed majority, before whose eagle-eye priv- 
ilege had to quail. O'Connell was the tongue, but The O 'Gor- 
man Mahon was the sword of the Irish Democracy rising 
against its oppressors after its centuries of bondage ; and so 
he did his own useful work in his own day. There was some- 
thing strangely picturesque in the appearance of that group of 
young men engaged in a still infant movement of a man who 
had stood by the side of O'Connell at the Clare election which 
won Catholic emancipation. It was almost as if Thomas Jef- 
ferson were to rise and with the same pen that had written 
the "Declaration of Independence" to join in the composi- 
tion of Abraham Lincoln's proclamation against slavery. In 
the years that had passed since that day The 'Gorman Ma- 
hon had gone through a life of strange and varied adventure. 
When, in the whirligig of time, he was thrust upon Irish pol- 
itics, he had gone to South America, and there had taken 
part in the struggles of the young Republics for emancipa- 
tion. Returning to his native land, he found Isaac Butt start- 
ing the new movement for Home Rule. Several constituen- 

673 



674 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

cies competed for him, but he had chosen the historic county 
in whose history he had played so prominent a part. 

Garrett Byrne, member for WicMow, was in direct descent 
from Garrett Byrne, who was hanged in the rebellion of '48. 
John Barry, his colleague, beginning life at almost its hum- 
blest rung, had become an important member in a Scotch man- 
ufacturing firm, and shortly afterwards was in business for 
himself. He had also taken a share in political struggles, 
the history of which has yet to be told. Mr. Corbet was a 
member of an ancient Irish family, and a man himself of 
culture and of considerable literary power. 

One more figure requires description. On the first day of 
the meeting of the Irish Party the chair was occupied by the 
Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr. E. Dwyer Gray, M. P., for the 
County Carlow. Mr. Gray was the son of the late Sir John 
Gray, whose name has figured so frequently in the Constitu- 
tional struggle. He was born in the year 1846. Brought up 
from his earliest youth in the opinions of his father, whose 
favorite son he was, he attained at an early age a correct 
judgment of political affairs. His father had received many 
bitter lessons during a long political career. One story he 
was never tired of repeating to his son. It was of a man who 
offered to him during the Young Island excitement a plan of 
the defenses of Dublin Castle. Gray treated the offer of the 
surrender of the Lord Lieutenant's citadel with suspicion, 
and a few days afterwards was not surprised to find that the 
would-be traitor was a police-spy in disguise. The mind of the 
son was even clearer than that of his father, and refused 
steadily to accept any doctrine or course until it had been 
fully thought out. In this way Gray was sometimes regarded 
as backward when he was simply demanding the full rea- 
son for the offered policy, and had not yet been able to see 
its eventual outlet. He succeeded his father in the manage- 
ment of the IVeeman's Journal, the chief newspaper of Ire- 
land, and soon raised it to double its previous circulation. 
Becoming a member of the Dublin Corporation, of which his 
father had been the guiding star for many years, he soon at- 
tained to the position of its leading figure, and took a keen 
interest in advancing the hygienic improvements of the city. 

At this period he was Lord Mayor, and had under his 
control vast sums which had been subscribed to the Mansion 
House for the relief of distress. Anticipating a little, Gray 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 



675 



subsequently came into fierce collision with James Carey, 
whom lie exposed for an attempted fraud upon the Corpora- 
tion; and Carey from that day was his bitter and relentless 
enemy. Gray had been returned to the House of Commons 
shortly after the death of his father, and was one of its most 
influential debaters. There was no man in the Irish Party, 
and few outside of it, who could state a case with such pellucid 
clearness. When Gray had completed his statement the whole 
facts were as clear to the minds of his hearers as they had 
already been to his own searching intellect. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER XX. 

PAENELL ELECTED LEADER— GLADSTONE MEETS HIS MATCH. 

The great question to be decided at this meeting was the 
future leadership of the party. Up to a few days before the 
meeting there was practically no intention even of proposing 
Mr. Parnell as a leader. The idea never assumed shape until 
the night before the meeting in the City Hall. There hap- 
pened to be stopping at the Imperial Hotel several gentlemen 
who had been returned or had resolved to support Mr. Par- 
nell 's policy. Among them they discussed the question of 
leadership. The gentlemen who took part in this informal 
and accidental conference were Mr. John Barry, Mr. Richard 
Lalor, Mr. 'Kelly, Dr. Commins, Mr. Biggar, Mr. T. P. 
O'Connor, and, strangely enough, Mr. McCoan; Mr. Healy, 
who had not yet been elected a member of Parliament, was 
also present. 

There was an understanding rather than a formal resolu- 
tion among these gentlemen that they would propose Mr. 
Parnell as a leader. He himself did not come to Dublin un- 
til next morning ; some gentlemen went to his hotel and others 
met him on his way to the City Hall. In his bedroom, and 
afterwards as he passed through the streets, mention was 
made to him of the suggestion that had been made at the in- 
formal meeting of the previous night. He neither rejected 
nor encouraged the idea, but seemed, on the whole, rather 
inclined to the notion, in case Mr. Shaw was displaced, of 
proposing that the office should be held by Mr. Justin Mc- 
Carthy. This was the state of things when the meeting as- 
sembled. Finally the vote was: For Mr. Parnell, 23; for 
Mr. Shaw, 18. Mr. Shaw apparently received his defeat at 
the moment with good humor, but when, the next day, the 
party formulated its policy and declared in favor of Peasant 
Proprietary as the final solution of the land question, Mr. 
Shaw already indicated a certain difference from Mr. Par- 
nell and his friends. 

When the party came over to London the first occasion 
arose for the two sections taking opposite sides. It was on a 
seemingly trivial question. The point at issue was the part 

676 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 677 

of the House in which the Irish members should take their 
seats. In the view of Mr. Shaw and his friends the existing 
Ministry was so friendly to Ireland that the Irish party should 
signify their general adherence by sitting on the same side 
of the House. The supporters of Mr. Parnell maintained that 
even between a friendly Liberal Ministry and an Irish Na- 
tional Party there might arise irreconciliable difference on 
the Irish National question and on several others. They held 
that the only hope of a satisfactory solution of the Irish ques- 
tion was that Irish members should maintain a position of 
absolute independence of the English parties; that, there- 
fore, the attitude of Irish Nationalists was one of permanent 
opposition to all English administrations, and that this polit- 
ical attitude should be signified by their continuing to keep 
their seats on the Opposition side of the House. 

Meantime, in Ireland, the land question was reaching a 
crisis. The increase of evictions, which had begun in 1877, 
the first year of the distress, showed still further signs of in- 
crease ; the number of tenantry unable to meet their rents was 
reaching daily larger proportions, and the Relief Commit- 
tee had on their rolls something like 500,000 recipients of 
charity. Side by side with all this the Land League was 
daily advancing with gigantic strides, and every week was 
receiving a vast impetus through the immense subscriptions, 
sent from America. It was clear that the time had come 
when Ireland must make a tremendous step either of ad- 
vance or retrogression. Either distress was to develop into 
famine, and famine lead to wholesale eviction, and another 
lease of landlord power and oppression, or the Irish people 
were to throw off the chains of centuries, to revolt against 
the perpetuation of their miseries and of their servitude, and 
to dash forward in an effort for a new and a better era. 

Such was the state of Ireland, and such the position of 
the Irish Party, when Parliament met in 1880. But how was 
it with the Ministry? They did not know the existence of 
the distress ; they did not know the strength of the agitation ; 
they were far more ignorant, of the condition of the island 
than of countries separated by thousands of miles on land 
or by sea; above all things, they had no idea whatever of 
making an attempt to deal with the land question. 

The first witness of the state of feeling among the Min- 
istry is the Duke of Argyll, who, speaking in 1881, said: 



678 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

^ ' The present Government was formed with no expressed 
intention of bringing in another Irish Land Bill. . . .It 
formed no part of the programme upon which the Government 
was formed. Perhaps no Government was ever formed on a 
greater or wider programme, if we are to take the speeches 
of my right honorable friend the Prime Minister in the course 
of the Midlothian campaign as the programme of the Gov- 
ernment ; but, so far as I recollect and am concerned, it was 
not intimated in those speeches that it was the intention of 
the Government to unsettle the settlement of the Land Act 
of 1870." 

In the session of 1880 the Marquis of Hartington showed 
that his mind was not only not made up in favor of Land Re- 
form in Ireland, but that he was, on the whole, rather antag- 
onistic to any such reform. 

He was speaking in reply to a motion of Mr. Justin Mc- 
Carthy that a tenant farmer should be added to the Commis- 
sion of Inquiry into the land question. Several of the Irish 
members had spoken of the Land Act of 1870 as an absolute 
failure, and had taken it for granted that the Ministry had 
made up their minds that another and a larger Land Act was 
required. Thus Lord Hartington rebuked them: 

''The Marquis of Hartington said he was not surprised 
that the honorable member for Tralee (The O'Donoghue) ob- 
jected to the composition of the Commission, seeing that with 
him the failure of the Land Act was a foregone conclusion. 
To some minds the conclusion was not so absolutely certain 
that the Land Act had failed, or that it had not, and it was 
in solving that question that the Commission was expected 
to be useful. The speeches attacking the Commission had all 
been pervaded by a fallacious supposition, namely, that the 
Government looked to Baron Dowse and the other members 
of the Commission for a comprehensive scheme of land re- 
form. . . What they wanted was facts. In the last four 
years there had been almost continuous debates on the Irish 
land question. The result was that neither the House nor 
the Government could arrive at any certain conclusion on the 
matter. What could be more advisable under these circum- 
stances than to ask a set of honest and impartial men to make 
inquiry on the spot, and to report the facts brought under 
their notice? That was the object of the Commission, and 
not as the honorable member for Longford (Mr. Justin Mc- 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 679 

Carthy) seemed to suppose, the elaboration of a compre- 
hensive scheme of land reform." 

The chief and most significant testimony of the mind of 
the Ministry at this period is that given by Mr. Gladstone 
himself. During his visit to Midlothian in the Autumn of 
1884 he said: 

''I must say one word more upon, I might say, a still more 
important subject— that subject of Ireland. It did not enter 
into my address to you, for what reason I know not ; but the 
Government that was then in power, rather, I think, kept 
back from Parliament, certainly were not forward to lay be- 
fore Parliament what was going on in Ireland until the day 
of the Dissolution came, and the address of Lord Beaconsfield 
was published in undoubtedly very imposing terms. . . . 
I frankly admit that I had had much upon my hands con- 
nected with the doings of that Government in almost every 
quarter of the world, and I did not know— no one knew— 
the severity of the crisis that was already swelling upon the 
horizon, and that shortly after rushed upon us like a flood." 

Such, then, was the condition of the problem presented 
to Mr. Parnell and his followers. In their own country thou- 
sands of people face to face with starvation ; land tenure still 
in such a position that the tenant had no protection from 
rack-rent and from eviction, and therefore from periodic 
famine ; an agitation rising daily in passion and in strength ; 
the hour demanding revolutionary land reform ; and the mind 
of even an honest Ministry either blank or hostile. 

This contradiction between the demands of the Irish Ques- 
tion and the resolves of the Government is a central fact in all 
that follows. It will justify to any candid man measures 
which at the time appeared uncalled for and extreme; and, 
above all things, it will explain how it was that the Parnell- 
ites were driven at the very outset of the Session of 1880 into 
an attitude of hostility to a ministry that was Liberal and 
inclined to be friendly. 

The Queen's speech was soon to give evidence of the un- 
mistakable ignorance and unreadiness of the Government. 
It was of considerable length; it dealt with Turkey, and 
Afghanistan, and India, and South Africa; but it contained 
not one word about the Irish land question. Immediately af- 
ter the reading of the Royal address the Irish members re- 
tired to the dingy rooms in King Street, Westminster, which 



680 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

were then tlieir offices. The omission of all mention of the 
Irish land question was pointed out with indignant surprise, 
and it was immediately resolved that the moment the House 
reassembled the Irish members should take action by at once 
giving notice of an amendment to the Queen's speech. The 
amendment to the Queen's speech in 1880 was the germ which 
afterwards was transformed into the Land Act of 1881. 

The section led by Mr. Shaw had much to say in favor 
of the difficulties of the Government, and could urge with 
some justice that it was unfair to demand immediate treat- 
ment from the Ministry of a question of such vast importance 
and such extraordinary complexity as the Irish land ques- 
tion. The section led by Mr. Pamell, on the other hand, 
pointed out that the Irish land question had already reached 
a stage when further delay meant wholesale destruction; 
showed how long and patient had already been the endurance 
of the postponement of the land settlement by their constitu- 
ents; and, above all, urged that the primary consideration 
of a National Party was the need of the Irish people, and 
not the fortunes of an English Ministry. If the Irish demand 
were allowed to occupy a second and subsidiary place ; if that 
demand were made dependent upon the convenience of the 
Ministry, it was held by Mr. Parnell and his followers that 
the cause would be lost. 

The amendment was brought forward on the reassembling 
of the House after the interval which follows the reading of 
the Queen's speech. It was in these words : 

**And to humbly assure her Majesty that the important 
and pressing question of the occupiers and cultivators of the 
land in Ireland deserves the most serious and immediate at- 
tention of her Majesty's Government, with a view to the in- 
troduction of such legislation as will secure to these classes 
the legitimate fruits of their industry." 

It was on the night when this amendment was brought for- 
ward that Mr. Parnell spoke for the first time in Parliament 
since he had reached his new position. He rose about eleven 
o'clock; the House was crowded and eager, and when the 
Speaker called out the name of the member for Cork there 
was a movement of keen interest, and in the galleries re- 
served for strangers almost everybody got up to have a look 
at the new Irish leader. Mr. Parnell spoke briefly, but with 
vehemence and force. He drew a rapid picture of the state 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 681 

of things in Ireland, which was listened to with more curiosity 
than sympathy, and the general result was that Mr. Parnell 
was estimated as a very violent and rather irrational man, 
who represented nothing but. a small and irresponsible knot 
of senseless irreconcilables. The attitude of the House to 
Mr. Shaw was very different. He hunself seemed to chal- 
lenge comparison with his successor, for the moment Mr. 
Parnell sat down Mr. Shaw rose. The first and most sig- 
nificant fact was that the two men spoke from different parts 
of the House. Mr. Parnell had risen from a seat below the 
gangway on the Opposition side. Mr. Shaw spoke from the 
very bosom of the Eadical section, and when he rose he was 
rewarded with a burst of hearty cheers from all the Liberal 
benches. He spoke in the style that is now so well known; 
his speech gave a great deal of satisfaction and the opinion 
was freely expressed by the English members that his re- 
marks were in welcome contrast to the heat and exaggeration 
of Mr. Parnell. The contest between the two men was held 
to be undecided. There was much contempt for the group 
of young men who formed Mr. Parnell 's chief support, and 
the expectation was universal that Mr. Parnell 's tenure of 
office would be brief and inglorious. The appearance of the 
two men in the debate strengthened this conviction in the 
English mind, and English members might be heard to com- 
ment with cheerfulness that Mr. Parnell might be a dashing 
guerillero, but Shaw was the sagacious statesman and the 
real leader. 

But the Ministry and the House of Commons were soon to 
find that, however much Mr. Shaw's methods might be more 
agreeable than those of Mr. Parnell, it was with Mr. Parnell 
and his colleagues that they had to count. The new Minis- 
ters, confident in the magnificence of their recent victory, in 
the still verdant and unbroken strength of their party, and 
in the loftiness of their hopes, could not understand their 
path being crossed by this then insignificant section of the 
House. Between them and the Irish Party open warfare had 
not been declared, and its possibility would not be even con- 
templated, especially by men who had given such repeated 
assurances of their sympathy for Ireland as Mr. Gladstone 
and Mr. Bright. The Liberal Ministers and the followers of 
Mr. Parnell were at that stage in which it was yet undecided 
whether doubting affection would end in closer bonds or in 



682 Ieeland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

permanent estrangement ; but, meantime, Mr. Parnell and his 
friends contemplated a second move. The great object at that 
time was to stay the hands of the landlord, made omnipotent 
over the tenantry by the failure of the crops ; and to meet this 
emergency the Irish Party brought in the Suspension of Evic- 
tions Bill. The second reading of the Suspension of Evictions 
Bill came on at two o'clock one fine morning, to the horror 
and surprise of the Treasury bench. Mr. Gladstone looked 
up from the paper on which he was writing his nightly report 
of Parliamentary proceedings to the Queen, with a gaze first 
of pained amazement and then of pathetic appeal to the ser- 
ried and resolute ranks opposite him. But the Irishmen, who 
had to think of hundreds of thousands of other faces that 
looked to their inner minds with hungry hope from cabin and 
field, had their advantage, were determined to hold fast, and 
declared that the discussion of the Bill must go on. The 
Premier yielded to the inevitable, made the important an- 
nouncement that the Government themselves would consider 
the subject raised by Mr. Parnell 's measure, and so the Irish 
Land Question, which but a few days before had been scouted 
out of court, which had never been mentioned at the first 
Cabinet Council, of whose existence the Queen's Speech knew 
absolutely nothing, had already within a couple of weeks after 
the meeting of Parliament been taken up by the Government 
as one of the chief and primary questions of the Session ; and 
the starving tenants, just emerging from famine, might hope 
that the landlords would not be allowed to work unchecked 
their wicked will. This, in fact, was the first Parliamentary 
victory that the Land League gained. 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

HOUSE OF COMMONS STRUGGLING WITH THE IRISH QUESTION. 

The Disturbance Bill of Mr. Forster was the Suspension 
of Evictions Bill of Mr. Parnell under another name. The 
Parnellites, so far, had gained their point, but they were to 
reap still further advantage. The speakers for the Govern- 
ment had, of course, to array the terrible figures of eviction 
increasing with distress, to make strong speeches and urge 
powerful reasons in favor of a measure which went counter 
to so many of the prejudices of the House of Commons. Irish 
distress thus became the cry of an English as well as an Irish 
party, and striking statements and valuable admissions were 
made which justified the whole position of the Land League. 
For instance, it was during a debate on the Disturbance Bill 
that Mr. Gladstone committed himself to the famous doctrine 
that, in the circumstances of distress in which Ireland then 
was, a sentence of eviction might be regarded as equivalent 
to a sentence of death ; and it was this and such like expres- 
sions of opinion that long paralyzed the hand of the Govern- 
ment against the Land League agitation. Everybody knows 
that the Disturbance Bill was fiercely opposed stage after 
stage by the Tories in the House of Commons, that it was 
finally carried by overwhelming majorities, and that, when it 
went to the House of Lords, it was thrown out with every cir- 
cumstance of ignominy and contempt. 

This ending to the business placed both the Government 
and the Irish Party in a strange and difficult position. It had 
been stated by Mr. Gladstone that a sentence of eviction was 
equivalent to a sentence of death, and the equally significant 
and appalling statement had been added by him that, accord- 
ing to the statistics supplied by the Irish authorities, 15,000 
persons were to receive the sentence of eviction within that 
single year. The reality of the dangers of the peace of Ire- 
land Mr. Forster was himself foremost in acknowledging f 
and were they then to allow Ireland to drift unhelmed— or, to 
use Mr. Gladstone's own words, ''without hope and without 
remedy"— to the abyss of wholesale eviction, tempered by 
wholesale assassination, towards which the action of the 

683 



684 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Hoiise of Lords had pushed it? It is hard at this moment to 
say what the Government could have done. They had just 
come from the country with a triumphant majority. Was it 
in political human nature that they should risk this majority 
by another appeal to the country within a few months, and 
before they had fulfilled a single item in the vast programme 
which they had set before them? The Ministry might have 
been greatly weakened, and the mighty weapon for the 
repair of past Conservative errors and for future Liberal 
conquest might have been returned to the hands of Mr. 
Gladstone, pointless and broken. The truth is, the dif- 
ficulty of the situation was the permanent and incurable 
difficulty of the present Parliamentary relations of England 
and Ireland ; it was the difficulty of having to govern one coun- 
try through the public opinion of another. An Irish Minister 
face to face with such a crisis could with confidence have ap- 
pealed against a verdict so plainly hostile to the interests of 
Ireland as the rejection of the Suspension of Evictions Bill, 
with the full knowledge that the public opinion of his own 
people, at once sympathetic and informed, would have re- 
doubled his power of meeting so protentous an emergency. 
But the English Minister had to appeal to a public almost 
entirely ignorant of the merits of the controversy, and fickle 
in its sympathies because of ignorance. 

But there was one step which might have been taken, and 
which might have resulted in some good. On August 24th, 
Mr. Forster made an important statement : 

*'He had always said they must carry out the law; but 
he must also repeat that, if they found, as they had not within 
the past two or three weeks found, and as they hoped they 
would not find, that the landlords of Ireland were to any great 
extent making use of their powers so as to force the Govern- 
ment to support them in the exercise of justice, the Govern- 
ment should accompany any request for special powers with 
a Bill which would prevent the Government from being 
obliged to support injustice. He would go further and say. 
under any circumstances if it was found that injustice and 
tyranny were largely committed— although he did not believe 
that such would be the case— it would then be their serious 
duty to consider what their action should be, and he did not 
think that any man in the House would expect him to remain 
any longer the instrument of that injustice." 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 685 

Here was some promise of a break in the run of disaster 
which now menaced Ireland. The landlords might evict on a 
wholesale scale, and all their history down to that very year 
pointed to their making full and savage use of every power 
which the law and the seasons had placed in their hands ; but 
if a Minister of the Crown, rather than carry on this law, 
were to resign his office, the public opinion of the country 
would necessarily be fixed upon the difficulties and the horrors 
of the problem; and the Ministry, with such a force behind 
them, would have been able to dictate to the House of Lords 
a prompt and complete remedy. But many days had not 
elapsed when this hope disappeared. A cold fit had super- 
vened with extraordinary rapidity upon the outburst of angry 
and worthy resolve, and Mr. Forster, catechised by the Oppo- 
sition, explained his words until his great purpose vanished 
into thin air and meaningless talk. The final result of the 
Session then was this: A Relief of Distress Bill had been 
passed, through which money was to reach distressed tenants, 
having first passed through the hands of the landlords, and a 
Commission of Inquiry had been added to the long and dreary 
inquisitions that had investigated the Land Question. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

PARNELL URGES THE BOYCOTT— IMPORTANT UTTERANCES OF THE 

IRISH LEADER. 

The situation wliieli Mr. Parnell had now to consider was 
one of extreme difificulty. The composition of the Land Com- 
mission, the words of Lord Hartington, and the silence of the 
other Ministers, gave but too much reason to believe that the 
mind of the Government was not even yet made up for any- 
thing like a large measure of land reform. The refusal for 
so many years of any measure of relief, followed by the miser- 
able insufficiency of the Land Act of 1870, were too much cal- 
culated to make Mr. Parnell draw pessimist conclusions from 
such facts. The great evil he had to avoid was that the 
mighty agitation of 1880 should not end, as did that of 1869-70, 
in an abortive and halting measure. Meantime there was the 
country before him, organizing itself, as it had rarely ever 
been organized before, with mightier forces making in the 
direction of complete reform than had ever, perhaps, stood 
behind any movement. The nature of Mr. Parnell impelled 
him to drive in political matters the hardest of hard bargains 
within his power; his grip of a political advantage for his 
countrymen was as relentless as the grip of death. His course 
in the months that followed was dictated mainly by the sense 
that through no word or act of his should the chance of the 
people for a full and final settlement of all their claims be 
jeopardized or diminished. 

It is another essential evil of the present relations between 
England and Ireland that no great reform can be carried out 
— especially on the Land Question— without bringing the peo- 
ple of Ireland, as Mr. Chamberlain said, to a state bordering 
on revolution; and to a state bordering upon revolution the 
Irish people were now fast approaching. Mr. Parnell natur- 
ally gave no encouragement to the idea that the position of 
the Irish Land Question had not yet passed beyond the stage 
of inquiry. The movement in its new phase received its first 
word of real guidance from Mr. Parnell at a meeting held in 
Ennis on September 19th, 1880, and the speech he then deliv- 
ered gave the keynote of the situation. First, he told the 

689 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 687 

people to place no confidence in the Government Commission ; 
and, while he did not positively advise farmers against giving 
evidence, he warned them against the danger of the accept- 
ance of any responsibility for the proceedinigs of that body. 
Then he passed on to the declaration which after events did 
so much to prove correct— that it was to themselves and their 
own organization the farmers were mainly to look for redress. 

''Depend upon it (he said) that the measure of the Land 
Bill of next session will be the measure of your activity and 
energy this winter ; it will be the measure not to pay unjust 
rents; it will be the measure of your determination to keep 
a firm grip of your homesteads ; it will be the measure of your 
determination not to bid for farms from which others have 
been evicted, and to use strong force of public opinion to 
deter any unjust men amongst yourselves— and there are 
many such— from bidding for such farms. If you refuse to 
pay any unjust rents, if you refuse to take farms from which 
others have been evicted, the Land Question must be settled, 
and settled in a way that will be satisfactory to you. It de- 
pends, therefore, upon yourselves, and not upon any Com- 
mission or any Grovernment. When you have made this ques- 
tion ripe for settlement, then, and not till then, will it be 
settled." 

And, finally, he gave the advice with regard to "boycot- 
ting" which was afterwards quoted hundreds of times against 
him. 

''Now what are you to do (he said) to a tenant who bids 
for a farm from which another tenant has been evicted? 

*' Several voices: Shoot him! 

' ' Mr. Parnell : I think I heard somebody say ' Shoot him ! ' 
I wish to point out to you a very much better way— a more 
christian and charitable way, which will give the lost man an 
opportunity of repenting. When a man takes a farm from 
which another has been unjustly evicted, you must show him 
on the roadside when you meet him; you must show him in 
the streets of the town ; you must show him in the shop ; you 
must show him in the fair-green and in the market place, and 
even in the place of worship, by leaving him alone ; by putting 
him into a moral Coventry; by isolating him from the rest 
of his country as if he were the leper of old— you must show 
him your detestation of the crime he has committed. ' ' 

There have been few things that Mr. Parnell has said 



688 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

throughout his career which have been more bitterly criticised 
than the counsel given in these words. Barristers have as- 
sailed him in the House of Commons who would have merci- 
lessly boycotted the counsel that held direct intercourse with 
a client without the mediation of a solicitor; doctors who 
would mercilessly boycott a professional brother who adver- 
tised or compounded medicines, or violated any other article 
of a complex professional code ; politicians who had merci- 
lessly driven out of their organizations the backsliders from 
political principles; members of clubs who had ostracized 
offenders against the laws of honor or of conventionality; 
representatives of working classes who had wrung from a 
Conservative Ministry the right of workmen to boycott avari- 
cious employers. The principles of boycotting have thus been 
applied in ordinary times, and in ordinary occupations, by 
some of those who most loudly denounced it. One of the most 
fertile sources of landlord wrong and tenant suffering was 
the fierce competition for the possession of land. It had in- 
duced tenants to offer a rent measured not by the capacities 
of the land, but by their own despair ; and it is perfectly clear 
that as long as eviction produced, through this unchecked 
competition, an increase of rent, eviction was a temptation 
and not a horror to the landlord. At this moment the Irish 
tenants were engaged in a great effort to break, once and 
forever, the thraldom of centuries. Against this effort were 
arrayed the mighty forces of the Empire. By a strict com- 
bination alone among themselves could the Irish tenantry 
hope for success; and the boycotting of any man who lent, 
by land-grabbing, assistance to the landlord was essential 
to success. Boycotting was abused ; it was occasionally used 
for private purposes; it sometimes led to crime; but it was 
at least a far less savage mode of warfare than assassination, 
which it largely replaced. Until coercion brought homicidal 
frenzy, it did much to keep down the number of outrages; 
and, as Mr. John Dillon said in reply to an attack, it kept the 
roofs over the heads of many a thousand men and women 
who, without it, would have been thrown on the roadside to 
perish. 

The meeting at Ennis was followed by several other 
demonstrations, at most of which were the same array of 
numbers, which had been unparalleled since the days of the 
Liberator. At all of these meetings Mr. Parnell practically 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 689 

preached the same principles. It would be well worth while 
for anybody who wishes to study the strange career of this 
Irish Leader to read over again those speeches; for he will 
find in them that foresight, and that grasp of the central and 
essential facts of the situation and the real necessities of the 
time, which justify Mr. Parnell's extraordinary reputation. 
He had to fight at this period not merely the halting purpose 
of the Ministry, but also the feeble resolves of some men 
within the National ranks. They solemnly recommended 
moderation to the farmers, when the real danger was not in 
the extravagance of the demands made by the Irish people, 
but in the grudging bestowal of minimized concession by the 
House of Commons and the House of Lords. They amused 
themselves with elaborate schemes, instead of leaving the 
responsibility to the Ministers. They had much to say of the 
difficulties of Mr. Forster, and little of the difficulties of the 
peasants who, with their backs to the walls, fought a life-and- 
death struggle with hunger and eviction. Mr. Parnell, while 
personally courteous and tolerant to a degree that looked 
almost weakness, at this time, to these gentlemen and their 
proposals, steadily pursued his own path. He used to point 
out the objection to the ''three F's" as either a practical or 
a final solution to the question. The settlement which he pro- 
posed was peasant Proprietary. 

''We seek as Irish Nationalists (he said at New Ross on 
September 25, 1880) for a settlement of the Land Question 
which shall be permanent— which shall for ever put an end to 
the war of classes which unhappily has existed in this country 
. . . a war which supplies, in the words of the resolu- 
tion, the strongest inducement to the Irish Landlords to up- 
hold the system of English misrule which has placed these 
landlords in Ireland. And looking forward to the future of 
our country, we wish to avoid all elements of antagonism be- 
tween classes. I am willing to have a struggle between classes 
in Ireland— a struggle that should be short, sharp, and de- 
cisive—once for all; but I am not willing that this struggle 
should be perpetuated at intervals, when these periodic reval- 
uations of the holdings of the tenants would come under the 
system of what is called fixity of tenure at valued rents." 

It is well to add that, in every one of the speeches in which 
he spoke of peasant proprietary, he definitely laid down the 
doctrine that peasant proprietary was to be obtained not by 



090 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

violence, but by the payment of reasonable compensation to 
the landlords. 

'^Now, then, is the time for the Irish tenantry to show 
their determination— to show the Government of England 
that they will be satisfied with nothing less than the owner- 
ship of the land of Ireland. . . . And I see no difficulty 
in arriving at such a solution, and in arriving at it in this 
way : by the payment of a fair rent, and a fair and fixed rent 
not liable to recurrent and perhaps near periods of revision, 
but by the payment of a fair rent for the space of, say, thirty- 
five years, after which time there would be nothing further to 
pay, and in the meantime the tenant would have fixity of 
tenure.'' 

One sentence, finally, from his speeches of this period. Mr. 
Parnell's mode, means, and end were impulsively described 
once by Mr. Grladstone as passing through rapine to dismem- 
berment. I have already quoted the sentence which will effec- 
tually dispose of the charge of rapine, and now for one on 
which the seeking of dismemberment was mainly founded. 
Speaking at Galway on October 24, 1880, Mr. Parnell said : 

*'I expressed my belief at the beginning of last session 
that the present Chief Secretary, who was then all smiles and 
promises, should not have proceeded very far in the duties 
of his office before he would have found that he had under- 
taken an impossible task to govern Ireland, and that the only 
way to govern Ireland is to allow her to govern herself. . . . 
And if they prosecute the leaders of this movement . . . 
it is not because they wish to preserve the lives of one or two 
Landlords . . . but it will be because they see that be- 
hind this movement lies a more dangerous movement to their 
hold over Ireland; because they know that if they fail in 
upholding landlordism here— and they will fail— they have 
no chance of maintaining it over Ireland; it will be because 
they know that if they fail in upholding landlordism in Ire- 
land, their power to misrule Ireland will go too. I wish to 
see the tenant farmers prosperous; but large and important 
as is the class of tenant farmers, constituting as they do, with 
their wives and families, the majority of the people of this 
country, I would not have taken oif my coat and gone to this 
work if I had not known that we were laying the foundation 
in this movement for the regeneration of our legislative in- 
dependence." 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 



691 



This sentence, wHch was often quoted, as it will be seen, 
simply demands the restoration of the Irish Parliament ; and 
that is not dismemberment. It was almost enough to make 
an Irishman frenzied to hear this sentence of Mr. Parnell 
quoted over and over again as the sudden revelation of some 
new, diabolical, unheard of policy. Mr. Parnell announced 
himself a Home Ruler. Was there anything new, or diabol- 
ical, or unheard of in that? Mr. Butt was a Home Ruler, so 
were all his followers ; Mr. Parnell himself had been elected 
as a Home Ruler five years before the Galway speech. To 
say that he could not have entered into the Land agitation if 
he did not believe that it would help towards Home Rule, was 
to make the not very unnatural declaration that the reform 
of the Land system would tend towards the restoration of an 
Irish Parliament. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

BUCKSHOT FOESTEE WANTS COEECION— lEISH LEADEES PLACED ON 

TEIAL. 

In the meantime, while thus the movement in Ireland was 
reaching its springtide, how was it with the Chief Secretary? 
From this period forward Mr. Forster disappears from 
history as an advocate of reform and becomes the chief, the 
fiercest, and the main champion of coercion. As the days 
went on, instead of resignation, came symptoms of the most 
stringent resolution to carry out the unjust law to its bit- 
terest end. Extra police were drafted into the counties of 
Mayo and Galway, thus raising the burden of taxation upon 
the two counties that had suffered the most bitterly and es- 
caped the most narrowly from the bitterest horrors of famine. 
The Orange writers in the North of Ireland adopted their 
usual policy of representing as a vast conspiracy against 
Protestantism a movement the unsectarian character of which 
was universally acknowledged, and sought to prevent an alli- 
ance of Protestant and Catholic farmers against their common 
enemy by the characteristic effort to rouse the dying embers 
of religious hate. The landlord organs began to cry out for 
repression, and the London papers played their characteristic 
part of blackening events in Ireland and of exasperating the 
growing resentment between the two countries. 

Towards the beginning of October the cry for coercion 
had swollen to a tempest, but for a moment it was laid by 
two remarkable speeches from Mr. Bright and Mr. Cham- 
berlain. 

"I saw," said Mr. Bright, ^'the statement the other day 
that about 100 of them (the Irish landlords), equal nearly 
to the number of the Irish members, had assembled in Dub- 
lin and discussed the state of things, and they had nothing but 
their old remedy— force, the English Government armed po- 
lice, increased military assistance and protection, and it might 
be measures of restriction and coercion which they were anx- 
ious to urge upon the Government. The question for us to 
ask ourselves is. Is there any remedy for this state of things ? 
'Force is no remedy. There are times when it may be neces- 

692 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle G93 

sary, and when its employment may be absolutely unavoid- 
able, but for my part I should rather regard, and rather dis- 
cuss, measures of relief as measures of remedy, than meas- 
ures of force, whose influence is only temporary, and in the 
long run, I believe, is disastrous." 

A conflict then arose within the Cabinet itself. I cannot 
pretend to tell the story of this internal struggle, and I can 
only repeat what was the gossip of the period. It was said 
that Mr. Chamberlain, Sir Charles Dilke, and Mr. Bright 
held out steadily and for a considerable time against the de- 
mand for coercion made by Mr. Forster. But Mr. Forster 
put forward this demand with daily increasing vehemence. 
For some days, according to the remark of the time, the Cab- 
inet was within short distance of being broken up. The main 
argument before which the hesitations of the Ministry broke 
down was the enormous increase which Mr. Forster was able 
to show in the outrages in October and November. And the 
increase which appeared in the figures he laid before his col- 
leagues was enormous indeed. By-and-by these figures will 
be examined and it will be seen what the merits of the case 
were upon which Mr. Forster based his demands. For the 
present, suffice it to say that Mr. Forster carried his point ; 
the opponents of coercion resolved to remain in the Cabinet, 
and it was announced that the next session of Parliament 
would open with a proposal for the enactment of coercive leg- 
islation. Meantime a blow was made at the leaders of the 
movement. On November 2nd, 1880, an information was 
filed at the suit of the Eight Hon. Hugh Law, then the Attor- 
ney-General, against Mr. Parnell and four of his Parlia- 
mentary colleagues, Mr. T. D. Sullivan, Mr. Sexton, Mr. John 
Dillon, and Mr. Biggar; and also against Mr. Patrick Egan, 
treasurer, and Mr. Brennan, secretary of the organization. 
In the indictment were also bundled several persons who held 
subordinate places in the organization, or were entirely un- 
connected with it. 

There were nineteen counts in the indictment against the 
traversers. The main charges were: Conspiring to incite 
the tenants not to pay their rents; deterring tenants from 
buying land from which other tenants had been evicted ; con- 
spiring for the purpose of injuring the landlords ; and form- 
ing combinations for the purpose of carrying out these unlaw- 
ful ends. This, then, was the proceeding of the Government ! 



694 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

There is scarcely one of these charges which was not the 
glory instead of the shame of Mr. Parnell and his fellow- 
traversers. Mr. Parnell had found the people face to face 
with famine and groaning under the oppression of centuries. 
He had brought them to such' assertion of their rights, to 
such potent combination, that, instead of being swept away, 
as in all previous crises, by wholesale hunger and plague and 
eviction, and thereafter reduced to deeper wretchedness and 
more hopeless slavery, not one man among them died from 
hunger or from disaster, and that, rising up from their mis- 
ery and impotence, they gradually reached the position of 
practical omnipotence over their oppressors. The events 
and calamities which seemed to drive the tenantry back into 
the doom of hunger and of servitude had brought to them 
a new birth of political hope and power ; and an hour of ap- 
parently darkest misery had been changed into the dawn of a 
new and better day. A man of any other nationality who 
had accomplished such things— if he had been an Italian or 
a Pole ; still more, at this epoch, if he had been a Bulgarian 
or a Montenegrin— would have taken an imperishable place 
in the adoration of Englishmen; and his reward, being an 
Irishman, was that a Liberal Administration dragged him 
through the mire of a criminal court. The trial was opened 
by a startling episode. With their usual mistake in regard- 
ing things in Ireland as necessarily the same as in England, 
because called by the same names, the English public were 
and are accustomed to look upon an Irish judge as raised 
above the passions of political partisanship. They were 
strangely shocked in the course of the preliminary proceed- 
ings of the trial to read a judgment of the Chief Justice of 
the Queen's Bench, in which the trial was to take place— a 
judgment in which the traversers were denounced with ve- 
hement passion. The times had been so changed since the 
elevation of a man like Judge Keogh to the Bench that the 
Lord Chief Justice found that even the English people could 
not stomach such conduct, and he retired at the opening of the 
trial. 

The trial was one of the solemn mockeries of the time. 
It was known by the Crown that no impartial jury would 
convict the saviour of the action of treason to the nation; 
and after a trial extending over twenty days, the jury were 
discharged without agreeing to a verdict, ten, according to 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 695 

universal rumor, being in favor of acquittal and two for con- 
viction. Another event of importance occurred during this 
recess. Shortly after his arrival in America on his memor- 
able mission, Mr. Parnell found the services of a secretary 
absolutely necessary. He had previously made the acquain- 
tance of a young Irishman who at that period was secretary 
in a London house of business and the London correspondent 
of the Nation newspaper. The young man had made a strong 
impression upon the Irish leader, had gained his confidence, 
and had taken part with some others in many of the impor- 
tant consultations at critical moments. This was Mr. T. M. 
Healy. To Mr. Healy Mr. ParnelPs thoughts turned when 
he found himself immersed in a hopeless sea of correspon- 
dence. He requested Mr. Healy 's presence in America by 
telegraph. On the day he received this telegram Mr. Healy 
threw up his situation, and on that same evening he was on 
his way to the vessel which took him to America. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE lEEEPRESSIBLE '^TIM^' HEALY— HIS EARLY STRUGGLES. 

Timothy Michael Healy was born in Bantry, County Cork, 
in the year 1855. Bantry, as has been seen, is also the birth- 
place of the Sullivans, and here Healy had beheld all the 
scenes of quick decay which have been already described. 
He had peculiar opportunities, indeed, for becoming familiar 
with the awful horrors of the famine, for his father, at sev- 
enteen years of age, had been appointed clerk of the Union 
at Bantry, and his occupation brought him into contact with 
all the dread calamities of that terrible time. He has told 
his son that for the three famine years he never once saw 
a single smile. Outside the abbey in which the forefathers 
of Healy and the other men of Bantry are buried, are pits 
in which many hundreds of the victims of the famine found 
ia coffinless grave ; and Mr. Healy will tell you, with a strange 
blaze in his eyes, that even to-day the Earl of Bantry, the 
lord of the soil, will not allow these few yards of land to be 
taken into the graveyard, preferring that they should be 
trodden by his cattle. Reared in scenes like these, it is no 
wonder that Healy, whose nature is vehement and excitable, 
should have grown up with a burning hatred of English rule 
in Ireland. 

He went to school to the Christian Brothers at Fermoy, 
but fortune did not permit him to waste any unnecessary time 
in what are called the seats of learning; and at thirteen he 
had to set out on the difficult business of making a livelihood. 
It is characteristic of his nature that, though he has thus 
fewer opportunities than almost any other member of the 
House of Commons of obtaining education— except such as 
his father, an educated man, may have imparted to him as a 
child— he is really one of the best informed men in the place. 
He is intimately acquainted with not only English, but also 
with French and with German literature, and the * ' rude bar- 
barism" of imagination of English journalists is keenly alive 
to the most delicate beauties of Alfred de Musset or Hein- 
rich Heine, and could give his critics lessons in what con- 
stitutes literary merit and literary grace. Another of the 

696 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 697 

accomplishments which Mr. Healy taught himself was Pit- 
man's shorthand; and shorthand in his case— as in that of 
Justin McCarthy and several other of his colleagues— was 
the sword with which he had in life's beginning to open the 
oyster of the world. At sixteen years of age he went to Eng- 
land and obtained a situation as a shorthand clerk in the of- 
fice of the superintendent of the North-Eastern Railway at 
Newcastle. Newcastle-on-Tyne has a very large and a very 
sturdy Irish population, who take an active part in all po- 
litical movements that are going on, and when Healy went 
there he found himself at once surrounded by countrymen 
who, if anything, held to the National faith more sturdily 
than their brethren at home. Probably he himself, if he were 
to trace the mental history of his political progress, would 
declare that in his case, as in that of so many other Irishmen, 
it was an English atmosphere that first gave form and in- 
tensity to his political convictions. At all events, the new- 
comer was not long at Newcastle when he was a persistent 
and an active participator in all the political strivings of his 
fellow-countrymen, and it speaks strongly of his force of 
character and their discrimination that, though yet but a strip- 
ling, he was chosen for several positions of authority. New- 
castle is one of the few towns in England that can boast of 
having a society exclusively devoted to Irish purposes, and 
of the Irish Literary Institute Mr. Healy was for a considera- 
ble time the secretary. He was also, as far back as 1873, 
secretary to the local Home Rule Association. Of Mr. 
Healy 's habits in Newcastle a characteristic account is given 
by one of his friends. He lodged in the house of an excel- 
lent Irish family — known to every Irish visitor in Newcastle 
—and in the family there was a Celtic abundance of children. 
It will relieve many friends of Mr. Healy to be informed that 
this man, before whom Ministers tremble, and even potent 
officials grow pale, is the delight and the darling of children, 
whose foibles, tastes, and pleasures he can minister to with 
the unteachable instinct of genius. The moment the young 
clerk put his foot inside his lodgings there came a shout of 
welcome from the young world upstairs ; the next minute he 
was romping with them all, and, during the whole period of 
his stay within doors he was the gayest and the youngest in 
the house. But when the time came for starting into the out- 
side world of Newcastle and of Englishmen, Healy at once 



698 Ireland's Crown op Thorns and Roses 

put on his suit of mail; his hat was tightened down upon his 
head, his face assumed a frown of a most forbidding aspect, 
and even his teeth were set. And so he went out to encounter 
the world of strangers among whom he lived. 

In March, 1878, he removed to London. He is distantly 
related to Mr. John Barry, M. P. for Wexford, and at that 
period Mr. Barry was associated with a large Scotch floor- 
cloth factory. Mr. Healy was employed as a confidential 
clerk in this firm. He began at the same time to contribute 
a weekly letter to the Nation on Parliamentary proceedings, 
which had just begun to get lively. From this time forward 
his face accordingly became familiar in the lobby of the House 
of Conunons. He had previously made the acquaintance of 
Mr. Parnell and the other prominent Irish figures of the last 
Parliament at Home Eule meetings and elsewhere; and his 
connection with the Sullivan family had made him more or 
less familiar with the 'inside" of Irish political movements. 
He at once threw all his force on the side of the ''active" sec- 
tion of the old Home Eule Party, and Mr. Parnell has sev- 
eral times remarked that it was to Mr. Healy 's advocacy and 
explanation of his policy in the columns of the Nation that 
the active party owed much of its success in those early days 
when its objects and tactics were misunderstood and actively 
misrepresented. The London correspondence of Mr. Healy 
was indeed a rare journalistic treat. In the opinion of many 
his pen is even more effective than his tongue; mordant, 
happy illustration, trenchant argument— all this was to be 
found in those London letters, and is still, happily, at the ser- 
vice of Irish national journalism. The style of Mr. Healy 
is founded palpably on that of John Mitchel, and he has many 
of the excellences, and a few also of the faults, of that writer ; 
but these very faults only make him the more readable, for 
liveliness, after all, is the first attraction of journalistic prose. 

Anticipating a little, Mr. Healy had scarcely taken his 
place in the House when he set to work, and his first speech 
was in reply to the Marquis of Hartington. It was late at 
night when the young member rose ; the deputy leader of the 
Ministerialists had made an effective address, and most of 
Mr. Healy ^s friends felt rather anxious as to the result. Mr. 
Healy can now bear to be told that there were very di- 
vided opinions as to the merits of his first appearance. His 
speech was delivered in a hard, dogged style, and gave evi- 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 699 

dence rather of fierce conviction than of debating power. It 
was some time, indeed, before the House would acknowledge 
that there was anything in Mr. Healy ; and there has scarcely 
ever been an Irish member who had in his early days to face 
the fire of such brutal, mean, and cowardly attack. Gentlemen 
of the press professed to be shocked at the intelligence that 
the new member was poor— that he actually, like themselves, 
wrote for a living; and even the cut of his clothes afforded 
proof of the ignobility of his character. But Mr. Healy took 
no notice of all this ribaldry, except, perhaps, to become 
fiercer in his wrath and more persistent in his activity. In 
the nine weeks' struggle against coercion he was, though a 
novice, one of the three or four men who did the largest 
amount of talking, and one has to go to the records of Big- 
gar's best days and Sexton's longest speech to find any ap- 
proach to the performances of Healy. When at last the Co- 
ercion Bills were done with, in 1881, Mr. Healy found more 
profitable employment in discussing the details of the Land 
Bill. While ninety-nine out of every hundred members of 
Parliament were floundering in the mazes of that extraordi- 
nary measure, Mr. Healy had found the key of the labyrinth, 
and was perfectly familiar with its details. He worked, as 
is known, night and day at the bill, obtained several conces- 
sions, and finally succeeded, under circumstances to be pres- 
ently described, in having the *' Healy Clause" adopted. These 
various successes at last made the House begin to change its 
opinion of its latest recruit. It was observed that Mr. Glad- 
stone and Mr. Law used to listen with the utmost attention to 
anything Mr. Healy had to say. The Premier was even one 
night beheld in pleasant converse with his young and unspar- 
ing antagonist, and at once the servile herd of Tory journal- 
ists began to recognize Mr. Healy 's talents. The saying of 
the time is well known that but three men in the House of 
Commons knew the Land Bill— Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Law, and 
Mr. Healy. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

CHABACTEEISTICS OF MR. HEALY. 

A few words as to Mr. Healy's general characteristics. 
Perhaps the most remarkable of all his qualities is his rest- 
less industry. From the moment he crosses the tessellated 
floor of the lobby, at about four in the evening, till the House 
rises, he is literally never a moment at rest— excepting the 
half hour or so he spends at dinner in the restaurant within 
the House. He has almost as many correspondents as a Min- 
ister, and he tries to answer nearly every letter on the day 
of its receipt. Then he takes an interest in and knows all 
about everything that is going on, great or small, English, 
Scottish, or Irish. With eyes ablaze, he comes to tell you 
of some atrocious job that is perpetrated under sub-section B 
in the schedule to a Scotch Bill on Hypothec, or a Welsh meas- 
ure on threshing-machines; and he points out the advantage 
to an Irish bill for reforming the grand jury by a block he 
has put against a bill for increasing the number of commis- 
sioners in bankruptcy. The extent of his knowledge of Par- 
liamentary measures is astonishing; many utter opponents 
in public policy seek his aid in this regard, and— tell it not 
in Gath!— there have been occasions when he has been seen 
explaining in the Library the mysteries of legislation to Mr. 
Herbert Gladstone. Indeed, Healy held himself at the ser- 
vice of everybody. A puzzled colleague comes to ask for en- 
lightenment; Healy has put his ideas into the shape of an 
amendment before he has had time to give them full expres- 
sion. Besides all this, Healy has frequently to write a col- 
umn or two for a newspaper in the course of the evening. 
And he is never absent from the House when anything of im- 
portance is going forward. He is, perhaps, the only man in 
the House, except Mr. Gladstone, who cannot bear a moment's 
idleness ; and, like the late Premier, he is distinguished from 
other members by the fact that even in the division lobbies 
he is to be seen utilizing the precious moments by writing 
at one of the tables. The characteristics of his oratory are 
at this time familiar. Often, when he stands up first, he is 
tame, disjointed, and ineffective, but he is one of the men 

700 



Ibeland^s Constitutional Battle 701 

iwHo gather strength and fire as they go along, and before he 
has resumed his seat he has said some things that have set all 
the House laughing, and some that have put all the House 
into a rage. Finally, Healy has the defects of his qualities. 
The ardor of his temperament and the fierceness of his con- 
victions often tempt him to exaggeration of language and of 
conduct. Those who play the complicated game of politics 
for such mighty stakes as a nation's fate and the destinies 
of millions ought to keep cool heads and steady hands. A 
quick temper and a sharp tongue cause many pangs to his 
friends, but keener tortures to Healy himself. He is betrayed 
into a rude expression, and then goes home and remains in 
sleepless contrition throughout the night. It was, of course, 
inevitable that when the Land League agitation broke out 
one of these antecedents and of this temperament should 
throw himself into the movement; and to those who now 
know Mr. Healy it will not be surprising to hear that he 
worked with fierce energy and often spoke with passionate 
vehemence. Passing through the South of Ireland, Mr. Healy 
became acquainted with the case of Michael McGrath. Mc- 
Grath had held for years a farm, but, the rent having been 
raised from £48 to £105, had at last to yield in a struggle, 
and was evicted. His land was ''grabbed" by another farm- 
er named Cornelius— or, as he was called in the district, 
"Curley"— Mangan, and a decree of ejectment was given 
against McGrath for the house that had been built by his 
own hands or by those of his father. McGrath and his fam- 
ily did not tamely submit to the judgment of the law. They 
stood a siege for some days, and, when the evicting party ap- 
proached near enough, threw boiling water upon them. The 
family were watched so closely that they were unable to go 
out even to get a drink of water, and at last were reduced 
by famine to capitulation. But the struggle was not over. 
McGrath went back to his farm and was sent to gaol. As 
each member of the family was released, he or she went back 
again, and again they were each in turn sent to gaol. At 
last they had to give up the struggle for the house, and they 
then adopted an expedient which, perhaps, could only be re- 
sorted to in Ireland, of all civilized lands. McGrath got 
a boat and turned it upside down, and under this boat lived 
himself, his wife, his sister, and his children. The many 
tourists who crowd in the summer season to the beautiful 



702 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

regions of Glengariff were acenstomed to stop on the road 
between Glengariff and Bantry to see this curions household. 
Mr. Healy was much struck with the story, and he and Mr. 
J. W. Walsh, then an organizer of the Land League, paid a 
visit to Mangan to remonstrate with him on the injustice he 
had done to the tenant, whose property he had helped the 
landlord to rob. 

For his action in this matter Mr. Healy was arrested, and 
this was the first prominent arrest by the new Chief Secre- 
tary of the Liberal Government. Mr. Parnell and his friends 
at once resolved to make a return blow. The lamented death 
of Mr. William Eedmond left a vacancy for the borough of 
Wexford. Mr. Healy was immediately nominated, and re- 
turned without even the mention of opposition. But he had 
not yet escaped from Mr. Forster's vengeance. He was 
charged under one of the Acts in the terrible code known as 
the Whiteboy Acts. The Acts date from the last century, and 
the prisoner convicted under them is liable to a lengthened 
term of penal servitude, and to be once, twice, or thrice pub- 
licly or privately whipped each year. The case came before 
Judge Fitzgerald, and he joined the prosecuting counsel in 
exhausting every effort to secure a conviction. The two per- 
sons, Mr. Healy and Mr. Walsh, were, in the first place, tried 
at the winter assizes, and this was in itself an unusual and 
suspicious occurrence. The winter assizes are intended for 
the relief of prisoners who, being imprisoned, would other- 
wise have to wait till the spring assizes, without having their 
cases decided; but Mr. Healy and Mr. Walsh were not im- 
prisoned. They were put on bail, and this was, perhaps, the 
first instance in which bailed prisoners were tried at these 
assizes. The disadvantage to Mr. Healy and Mr. Walsh was 
that they were not tried by a jury of county farmers, many 
of whom might be in their favor, as their crime, if any, had 
been committed in the defence of the farmers' cause. Then 
they were tried as misdemeanants, which reduced their power 
of challenge to six names; and, throughout the trial, Judge 
Fitzgerald was a far more effective cross-examiner on be- 
half of the Crown than the prosecuting counsel. But in spite 
of all these efforts, Mr. Healy and Mr. Walsh were acquitted. 

It is, perhaps, as well here to tell the fate of McGrath. 
He continued in his boat for some years— still pursued by 
the many agencies that are on the side of the landlords in 



Ieeland's Constitutional Battle 



703 



Ireland. For instance, lie was charged by tli6 county sur- 
veyor with trespassing on the road on which this boat-house 
was placed, and he only escaped through the inexhaustible 
ingenuity of Mr. Maurice Healy, Mr. Healy's brother. But 
finally, through exposure to the weather, poor McGrath 
caught typhus-fever, passed through the illness under the 
boat, died under it, and was there waked. Since then neigh- 
bors have built a small house for his widow and children. 




Sculpture on Window: Cathedral Church, Glendalough: Beranger, 1779. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

WILLIAM o'eKIEN", ^0U1^^DER OF THE UNITED IRISH LEAGUE. 

William O'Brien comes from a good stock, and was 
brought up from his earliest years in those principles of 
which he has become so prominent and so vigorous an advo- 
cate. On the day his elder brother was born, in 1848, the 
sub-inspector of police in Mallow had a warrant to search 
the house for firearms, but desisted from using it because of 
Mrs. O'Brien's illness, and on Mr. O'Brien giving his word 
that there were no arms in the house. O'Brien's father was 
one of the fiercest and most resolute spirits of the Young 
Ireland Party, but afterwards, like so many of the men who 
survived the terrible abortiveness of that time, was by no 
means friendly to physical force movement. In time he had to 
remonstrate with some of his own offspring for their adhe- 
sion to Fenianism, but his mouth was closed whenever his 
remonstrances became too vehement by an allusion to this 
episode in the days of his own haughty youth. 

William was born on October 2nd, 1852, in Mallow, with 
which town his family on the mother's side has been con- 
nected from time immemorial. He received his education at 
Cloyne Diocesan College. This was a mixed school, attend- 
ed by both Catholic and Protestant children. There was not 
the slightest sectarian animosity between the children of the 
different creeds, but there was plenty of political argument 
and differences. The Catholic Nationalists in the school 
formed a sort of small Irish party, and held their own ; Will- 
iam O'Brien being successful in carrying off the cash prizes, 
while his brothers and others carried off the honors in cricket, 
football, and the like. William from his earliest years had 
the same principles as he professes to-day. Apart from the 
example of his father, he had in his brother a strong apostle 
of the epistle of national rights. To his brother, his senior 
by some years, he looked up with that mixture of affection 
and awe which an elder brother often inspires in a younger 
brother. This brother was indeed of a type to captivate the 
imagination of such a nature as that of his younger brother. 
He was a man of inflexible resolution, great daring and bound- 

704 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 705 

less enthusiasm. Among the revolutionaries of his district 
he was the chief figure, and there was no raid for arms too 
desperate, or no expedition too risky for his spirit. He took 
part with Captain Mackay, who was one of the boldest of 
the Fenian leaders, in many of the raids for arms on police 
barracks and other places in the County of Cork. He was 
arrested, of course, when the Habeas Corpus Act was sus- 
pended, and underwent the misery and tortures which, as 
has already been described, were inflicted on untried prison- 
ers under the best of possible Constitutions and the freest 
of possible Governments. With this episode in the life of 
the elder brother, the brightness of the life of William 
O'Brien for many a long day ceased. His family history is 
strangely and terribly sad. In the O'Brien household there 
were at the one moment three members of the family dying. 
The father of the family had died before, and now two of 
his sons and his daughter were lying on their death-beds at 
the same time. The two brothers died on the one day, and 
a fortnight afterwards the sister died also. The shock to 
a nature so fiercely and intensely affectionate as that of Will- 
iam O'Brien can well be imagined. The death of his father 
and the illness of his brothers had thrown, to a great extent, 
the support of the entire family on his hands, and to them 
he was not merely a brother, but to a certain extent a helpful 
parent. It seemed for a time as if he were to be swept away 
by the same disease which had proved fatal to so many of 
his kin. He was only saved from death by a journey to 
Egypt, but he has never really recovered from the shock to 
his mind and heart which this family tragedy caused, and 
he is, and will be forever, haunted by its memory. 

The first thing which William O'Brien ever wrote was a 
sketch of the trial of Captain Mackay. This attracted the 
attention of Alderman Nagle, the proprietor of the Cork 
Daily Herald, and he was offered an engagement upon that 
paper. There he remained until somewhere towards 1876, 
when he became a member of the reporting staff of the Free- 
man's Journal. He had become, meantime, and remains, an 
expert shorthand writer. He did the ordinary work of the 
reporter for several years, with occasional dashes into more 
congenial occupation in special descriptions of particular 
picturesque incidents. Whenever his work had any connec- 
tion with the politics, condition, or prospects of his country 



706 Ireland's CroWn of Thorns and Roses 

he devoted himself to it with a special fervor. It was his 
descriptions of the County of Mayo in the great distress of. 
1879 which first concentrated the attention of the Irish peo- 
ple on the calamity impending over the country. While he 
was working with an energy as great as that of any other 
journalist in Dublin at his own profession, his heart was in 
the cause of his people. When the Coercion Act was passed 
in 1880 he thought the moment had come for him to offer his 
services to maintain the fight in face of threats of danger, and 
he proposed, through Mr. Davitt and Mr. Egan, that he 
should take up some of the work of the League. His health, 
however, was at the time so weak that his friends feared that 
the imprisonment which was almost certain to follow employ- 
ment by the League would prove fatal to his constitution, and 
he was dissuaded from joining the ranks of the movement. 
In June, 1881, when the conflict between Mr. Forster and 
the Land League was at its fiercest, jthe idea occurred of es- 
tablishing a newspaper as an organ of the League and Par- 
nellite Party. At once the thoughts of several people turned 
to the able and brilliant writer on the Freeman's Journal, 
and he was invited by Mr. Parnell to found United Ireland 
and to become its editor. 

It was then for the first time that the higher powers of 
O'Brien were discovered. Great as was his reputation as a 
writer of nervous and picturesque English, he had hitherto 
been unknown as the author of editorial and purely political 
articles, and few were prepared for the political grasp and 
feverish and bewildering force of the editorials he contrib- 
uted to the new journal. He had now been placed in the po- 
sition for which his whole character and gifts especially fitted 
him. O'Brien is the very embodiment of the militant jour- 
nalist. In some respects, indeed, his character resembles 
that of the French, rather than of the Irish, litterateur. 
Though he has keen literary instincts and a fine soul, his work 
is important to him mainly because of its political results. 
Fragile in frame and weak in health, he is yet, above all 
things, a combatant, ready and almost eager to meet danger. 
If he had been born in Paris he would probably have been 
found at the top of a barricade, or, like Armand Carrel, might 
have perished in a political duel. A long, thin face, deep- 
set and piercing eyes, flashing out from behind spectacles, 
sharp features and quick^ feverish walk— the whole appear- 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 707 

ance of the man speaks a restless, fierce and enthusiastic 
character. 

The times were such as to bring out to the full all his 
qualities of mind and character. As has been said, the foun- 
dation of United Ireland came in the agony of the struggle 
against coercion. Its tone was a trumpet call to further and 
fiercer advance instead of an appeal to retreat, and natu- 
rally, before long, Mr. Forster knew that either United Ire- 
land should be crushed or the spirit of revolt would grow 
daily fiercer and unbending. Mr. O'Brien was accordingly 
arrested the day after Parnell, under an act which was ob- 
tained for imprisoning mauvais sujets and village tyrants, 
the perpetrators and participators in crime! It was a part 
of the sadness that has followed his whole life that at the 
very moment of his arrest his mother was seriously ill, a 
woman whose nobility of character deserved the affection she 
received from her son. During his imprisonment the au- 
thorities were gracious enough to allow him out under es- 
cort to pay a visit to her, and he was released the day be- 
fore her death. After various attempts to have the paper 
published in different places, sometimes in England and some- 
times in France, United Ireland was finally suppressed by 
Mr. Forster. With the overthrow of Mr. Forster the paper 
was again revived. Then began a long and lonely duel be- 
tween Mr. 'Brien and the Administration, which lasted with 
scarce an interruption for three of the fiercest years in Irish 
history. 

While Mr. O'Brien was being tried for a '* seditious libel'' 
a vacancy arose in the representation of Mallow, through 
the promotion of Mr. Johnston, the Attorney-General, to a 
judgeship. It had been arranged before that whenever the 
general election came Mr. O'Brien, as a Mallow man, should 
appeal to the town to throw off its servitude to Whiggery 
and join the rest of the country in the new demand for the 
restoration of Irish rights. The opportunity for the appeal 
had come sooner than anybody had anticipated. The pros- 
ecution of O'Brien by the Government lent a singular oppor- 
tuneness to the struggle, and a still further element of sig- 
nificance was added to the contest by the Government send- 
ing down Mr. Naish, their Attorney-General, as his oppo- 
nent. Mallow, in some respects, has a history similar to 
that of Athlone, Sligo, and some other small constituencies 



708 



Irela.nd*s Crown of Thorns and Rosiis 



of Ireland. During the dreadful interregnum between tlie 
betrayal of Keogb and the rise of Butt it had followed the 
example of the other small constituencies in sending into Par- 
liament the worthless representatives of Whiggery or Tories. 
The representatives of Mallow, like the representatives of 
Galway and Athlone, and of Sligo, and Carlow, bought that 
they might sell. The contest for Mallow, under circum- 
stances like these, attracted an immense amount of attention, 
and all Ireland looked to the result with feverish eagerness. 
The reputation of Mallow had been so bad for so many years 
that there were doubts mixed with hope, and the utmost ex- 
pectation was that Mr. 'Brien would be returned by a small 
majority. The full significance of the change that had come 
over all Ireland was shown when the result was announced 
and it was found that O'Brien had been returned by a ma- 
jority of 72-161 to 89. 




Sculpture on a Capital: Priest's House, Glendalough; Beranger, i779. 
Prom Petrie's "Round Towers," 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

FIRST HOME RULE BILL— DESCRIPTION OF ITS INTRODUCTION INTO 
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS BY MR. GLADSTONE. 

Prime Minister for the third time, Mr. Glaastone found 
himself face to face with the greatest task of his great life; 
and the obstacles were greater, and not smaller, than 
those he had ever before encountered. The Marquis of Har- 
tington refused from the start to have anything to do with 
a Ministry which proposed Home Rule in any shape. Mr. 
Chamberlain and Sir George Trevelyan had pledged them- 
selves beforehand against certain forms of Home Rule, but 
they entered the Cabinet, and it was yet to be seen whether 
Mr. Gladstone could produce a plan which they could accept. 
For weeks there were contradictory rumors every hour as 
to how the struggle in the Cabinet was going on; but all 
doubts were set at rest by Mr. Chamberlain and Sir George 
Trevelyan taking their seats one evening below the gang- 
way and announcing to the the world that they had been un- 
able to agree with the plan of Mr. Gladstone. But Mr. Glad- 
stone was not to be turned back from his great purpose by 
the desertion of any colleagues, however eminent, and went 
on with the preparation of his bills. The Tories meantime 
kept pestering him with questions every day, apparently ex- 
pecting that such a mighty problem as the Constitution of 
a country could be fixed in a few hours. It is known that 
Mr. Gladstone intended to deal simultaneously with the Na- 
tional and the Land question, and the first intention was to 
bring in the Land Bill first, and then the Home Rule Bill. 
This plan was changed, and at last, on April 8, 1886, the 
Home Rule Bill was introduced. 

The scene was as thrilling as any ever beheld in the House 
of Commons, and never had there been more abundant signs 
of absorbing public interest. In order to secure seats the 
Irish members began to arrive from six o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and by eight or nine o'clock every seat in the House was 
seized. The result was that members spent all the day within 
the walls of the Westminster Palace— breakfasting, lunching, 
and dining there. When the sitting commenced a number of 

709 



710 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



members who had remained without seats brought in chairs 
and placed them on the floor of the House— a sight unprece- 
dented, I believe in the history of the Assembly. Mr. Glad- 
stone's entrance was marked by a striking incident. As he 
sat, pale, panting and still under the excitement of the great 
reception he had received from the crowds outside, the whole 
Liberal Party (with four exceptions) and all the Irish mem- 
bers sprang to their feet and cheered him enthusiastically. 
The four exceptions to this general mark of reverence and 
esteem were the four Dissentient leaders. Lord Hartington, 
Sir Henry James, Sir George Trevelyan and Mr. Chamber- 
lain remained sitting, and in a group by themselves they pre- 
sented a curious look of isolation amid these surroundings. 
It took Mr. Gladstone upwards of three hours to set forth 
all the details of his great measure. His voice lasted well 
to the end, and the attention of the House never relaxed for 
a moment. The speecch was calm in language, and the Tories 
were decent enough to abstain from any outbursts of im- 
patience. Indeed, the general desire to catch every word of 
a speech in which every sentence was fateful produced a 
reticence from both friend and foe. 




Ornament on leather case of Book of Armagh. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers." 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

HOME EULE DEFEATED. 

It would be wearisome to got at any length through the 
story of the intrigues, negotiations, rise and fall of fortune 
that characterized the interval between the introduction and 
the second reading of the Home Rule Bill. It became evi- 
dent from the start that Mr. Gladstone had enormously in- 
creased his difficulties in passing the Home Rule Bill by the 
introduction of the Land Bill. It was quite true that he had 
guaranteed the British Exchequer absolutely against loss ; but 
his enemies were either stupid or unscrupulous enough to 
misrepresent his scheme and to travesty it into a plan which 
would lose to the British Exchequer every penny advanced, 
and ultimately add several millions to the burdens of the 
British taxpayer. Mr. Gladstone was implored, both then and 
at a later stage in the struggle, to drop his Land Bill. These 
appeals might have been addressed with some hope of suc- 
cess to an unscrupulous or a reckless politician, but they 
were hopeless to a statesman who felt the obligations of 
honor and the necessities of public interest. Some of Mr. 
Gladstone's chief opponents were quite ready to denounce 
Land Purchase at one stage of the controversy— as will pres- 
ently be seen— and to advocate and propose it at another; 
but recklessness and indecency of this kind belong to a dif- 
ferent order of mind from that of Mr. Gladstone. 

Another difficulty of Mr. Gladstone was that his oppo- 
nents brought entirely opposite objections to his plan. The 
retention of the Irish members was demanded by Mr. Cham- 
berlain; their exclusion was, according to the Marquis of 
Hartington, the logical necessity of the plan. Mr. Cham- 
berlain objected to the scheme of Land Purchase; the Mar- 
quis of Hartington took very good care not to say anything 
which might injure the prospects of large monetary relief to 
the class of which he is a member. The speech of Mr. Glad- 
stone at the Foreign Office to a meeting of his supporters 
was held to make the second reading of the bill secure; the 
same speech on the following day in the House of Commons 
—Mr. Chamberlain acknowledged that the two speeches wer^ 

711 



712 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

exactly the same— lost the votes of those who the day be- 
fore, at the Foreign Office, had practically pledged them- 
selves to support the second reading. 

Among many of the absurd charges brought against Mr. 
Gladstone for his conduct of the measure is that he sprang 
the question upon the country. The charge is entirely un- 
true. He exhausted every means to keep the question in 
control of the United Liberal Party, and to prevent its ref- 
erence to the tumultuous and passionate tribunal of the bal- 
lot-boxes. In those clauses which provoked criticism he 
promised amendment, and the whole bill he proposed to post- 
pone until an autumn sitting, after the House had affirmed 
the principle of Home Eule by passing the second reading. 
It was those who defeated the second reading of the bill, and 
so provoked the general election, that must bear the respon- 
sibility of all that has since happened. If the second reading 
had been carried the interval would have been spent in the 
calm consideration of the various points of difference among 
those who honestly accepted the principle of an Irish Legis- 
lative Assembly, and in all probability a compromise would 
have been arrived at. There had not arisen at this period 
any of that fierce bitterness which at present rages between 
the two sections of the Liberal Party, and so the points of 
difference could have been debated in calmness and settled 
by mutual concession. 

But it was not to be. The enemies of Mr. Gladstone 
forced on the contest when they felt sure of victory. A meet- 
ing of the Dissentient Liberals was held a few days before 
the second reading division. A letter was read from Mr. 
John Bright. The letter has never been produced, though 
Mr. Chamberlain distinctly undertook to produce it when 
this fact was commented upon by Mr. John Morley in a speech 
in the House of Commons, and the world is still ignorant of 
its character. It was certainly used as an argument in fa- 
vor of voting against the bill, and it served more than any- 
thing else to bring about that fateful decision; but whether 
that was the advice of Mr. Bright, or whether he advised ab- 
sention, is one of the political mysteries that possibly this 
generation will never penetrate. The decision of the Dis- 
sentient Liberals to vote against the bill sealed its fate. The 
division took place on June 7. Mr. Gladstone wound up the 
debate with one of the most effective, most powerful, most 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 



713 



touching speeches he has ever delivered. But his eloquence 
for once was impotent; the bill was defeated by a majority 
of 30. 

Gladstone, however, lived to carry a second Home Eule 
Bill triumphantly through the House of Commons. It was, 
of course, defeated by the Lords, but there is a tradition in 
England that no popular measure passing the lower House 
ever fails to become a law of the realm. 




Ornament on top of Devenish Round Tower. 
From Petrie's "Round Towers," 400. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE ^'united IRISH LEAGUe/' 

There is little more to be added to complete the history 
of the Irish Constitutional Movement. Most Irishmen and 
Irish- Americans interested in the struggle of their brothers 
in the old land for National Self -Government are acquainted 
with the facts leading up to the tragic death of the greatest 
of Irish modern leaders— the incorruptible and fearless 
Charles Stewart Parnell. It makes one of the saddest chap- 
ters in the checkered history of Ireland, and for many rea- 
sons it has been thought well to omit it altogether from this 
work. 

For several years after Parnell 's death Ireland was 
plunged in the turbulent sea of faction, but at last, through 
the efforts of William O'Brien, the ''United Irish League'* 
was established in one of the western counties and spread 
rapidly throughout the country. People who had been pre- 
viously antagonistic stood together upon the same platform 
in the new organization and demanded similar action on the 
part of their leaders. A conference of both sections of the 
Irish members of Parliament was held, and the will of the 
people obeyed, by the election of John E. Redmond as chair- 
man of the United Irish Party. This action was soon after- 
wards ratified by a National Convention. An auxiliary or- 
ganization was next established in the United States, with 
John F. Finerty, of Chicago, as National President. Sev- 
eral branches have been founded in the principal cities of 
the Union, and many large sums of money have been for- 
warded to the home body. The fruits of the reuniting of 
the two sections in Ireland have been a large measure of 
local self-government and a liberal Land Act. Both enact- 
ments have been of great benefit to the country. The former 
has justified the advocates of Home Rule in claiming that 
the Irish people are fully capable of governing themselves; 
the latter will eventually result in the complete abolition of 
landlordism— the greatest curse of Ireland since the days of 
Cromwell. The Irish people and their representatives in 
the English House of Commons are now pressing the de- 

714 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 715 

mands of the laborers, and the leaders of English public 
opinion agree that a generous bill for the amelioration of 
the condition of the toilers of Ireland will be the principal 
feature of the next session of Parliament. 

Meanwhile, the fight for Home Rule goes on, and remains 
the question of the hour par excellence in British politics. 
That the present generation will witness the opening of an 
Irish Parliament in Dublin with full control of Irish affairs 
is the hearty prayer and firm belief of the Irish people and 
their millions of sympathizers the world over. 

F. J. Ryan. 



AVONDALE. 
parnell's home amid the wicklow hills. 

A silent, square house, standing in the heart of the Wick- 
low hills. It was Parnell's home in what now seems the 
long ago, the house in which he was born, where his youth 
was spent. Looking at it from the banks of the Avonmore, 
that sings its way to the Meeting of the Waters, it is pathetic 
in its desolation. Not a sound falls upon the ear— only the 
murmur of the river ! All else is silent, and the silence seems 
ordained. On one side of the house— the sloping sward, the 
green grass and a few trees dotting the lawn that leads down 
to the river; on the other side— the deep dip down to the 
stream below, the sides thick with mountain ash and red- 
berried holly and stunted oak. 

Here and there an aspen tree, its leaves quivering and 
trembling, and sweet briar in the underwood. Standing there 
are the ruins of the old Keep, where in the years that are 
dead the sentinels of the 'Byrnes and O'Tooles kept vigil 
on the passes that led down from the English Pale ; and when 
the word was passed that my Lord Deputy or his knights 
were moving among the hills with the swords of the foreign 
garrison, the beacon light on that old watch tower licked the 
darkness of the night, and the signals that warned and grew 
and grew until they girt the hills and ringed around the 
mountains of the Golden Spears, and sent the alarm away to 
Glenmalure, that same golden valley where my Lord Deputy 
Grey de Wilton went down into the dust, together with his 



716 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

steel-clad esquires, on the morning they met the strong arms 
of the 'Byrnes, of the Wicklow passes. 

From this Keep one looks away to the mountains in the 
soft distance, which were an Irish garrison and a rebel home 
down to the days when Michael Dwyer laid down his long, 
sure flintlock and trusted to an English promise. At your 
feet in the gully, the River Avonmore, that in the summer 
weathers its way from its home 'mid the hills, rippling against 
the huge boulders that stand up awkwardly in the river's 
bed— a stream where the trout rises and the kingfisher 
flashes its light. But in the winter time it comes along swol- 
len, angry, frothing, dashing its spray over the rocks, carry- 
ing along on its sullen rush the ash trees that grew by its 
banks and smashing them against the piers of the bridges. 

A well-wooded country this Garden of Ireland looks from 
the old Keep, the purple hills in the distance fading into a 
gray background to that stretch of country where the Seven 
Churches are crumbling away, and where Glendalough lies 
solemn and silent. It is not so far away, there to the souths 
where Esmond Kyan made his stand against the yeomen and 
the red-coats at Arklow one hundred years ago— made such 
a stand that your foreign generals learned to their bitter 
cost that the Insurgents of '98 were not a mob of rebels, 
but soldiers of a nation. Behind are the roads that Joseph 
Holt kept clear during that sad but glorious time, and the 
bridge where he annihilated the Welsh mercenaries with 
thrust of pike. 

There stands Avondale, in this grand old county, where 
the history of Ireland was written by the sword-point dipped 
in blood. Sad, indeed, the house looks even by day, but at 
night the tall trees in the avenue meet like funeral plumes 
overhead and shut out the light and the stars. Then the 
vapor on the waters of the river rolls along like the dust from 
the feet of marching men, and the water rail's cry is mourn- 
ful, and the bark of the dog in the distance sounds dismal 
and dreary. 

Avondale, square and modern, is eerie to those who know 
the history of the man who lived there as a lad and who be- 
gan to dream dreams for the old land at an age when most 
of us are growing our boyish lessons. 

They will tell you down there how Parnell would listen 
to the traditions of the great rising in '98, and how his eyes 



Ireland's Constitutional Battle 717 

would deepen and darken at the stories of cruel massacre. 
His chair in the library is there to-day, the same old chair 
into which he used to curl himself and read the heavy vol- 
umes containing the reports of the debates of the old Irish 
House of Commons. There is his nook by the fire-place in 
the hall where he used to sit and think out half-formed plans 
and skeletons— and the same heavy oak clock that to-day 
ticks its life away, just as it counted the hours when Parnell 
as a child watched its slow hands go round and wondered 
how they moved. 

There in the hall, too, are specimens of ore that he had 
from the hills near by, the pillar of polished marble from his 
own quarries at Arklow. Then there is the bog-oak wheel- 
barrow, with its silver mountings, and the spade with which 
he turned the first sod of the East Clare Railway; the many 
camans the Gaels gave him, the caskets in which lie the parch- 
ments that made him a freeman of many a city, both here 
and across the wide, salt sea. But the man they did honor to for 
work done for Ireland is dead, and the dust has gathered on 
the caskets. It is unutterably sad looking at all these things. 
His hands had touched them. The books— his hands had 
opened them; they never raised up their voices against him 
and clamored for his undoing. 

He, like an Irish king, is sleeping, sleeping 
In Irish earth, under the low, green mound, 

And Erin hath his memory in her keeping; 
His grave is sacred ground. 




REV. MICHAEL P. O'HICKEY, D.D., M. R. I. A., 

Professor of Gaelic, Maynooth College. 



SECTION VII. 



RE-CREATING A NATION 

OR, 

THE WORK OF THE GAELIC LEAGUE 



RIGHT REV. PATRICK O'DONNELL, Bishop of Raphoe 

VERY REV. DR. M. P. O'HICKEY, of Maynooth College 

SIR THOMAS GRATTAN ESMONDE, Bart 

VERY REV. DR. RICHARD HENEBRY, Ph. D. 

PROF. KUNO MEYER, Ph. D. 

THOMAS O'NEILL RUSSELL 

CONTAINING 

OUR LANGUAGE, OUR NOBLEST INHERITANCE— THE LANGUAGE OF 

OUR SIRES— THE INTELLECTUAL REVIVAL IN IRELAND— A 

CRITICAL ESSAY ON IRISH MUSIC— A SURVEY OF 

CELTIC PHILOLOGY— IRISH MANUSCRIPT 

LITERATURE 



7X9 



RE-CREATING A NATION 



INTRODUCTORY. 

BY P. F. HOLDEN, NAT. SEC. GAELIC LEAGUE IN AMEKICA. 

The object of the Gaelic League is the upbuilding of an 
Irish Ireland. The object of the American branch is to aid 
the movement at home morally and financially, and to secure 
for those of our race now in this country and for their chil- 
dren, the future citizens of America, an opportunity to learn 
something of the language, literature, history, music, and 
characteristics of their ancestors. 

Our people. in Ireland have, it is generally admitted, drift- 
ed away through various causes from Gaelic ideals and cus- 
toms ; the Gaelic League would bring them back to their orig- 
inal moorings and hold them there. It would make the Irish 
language the language of the home, the Church, the school- 
house, and the market place, simply because that language 
is the natural medium of expression amongst the Irish peo- 
ple. It is not at all sought to banish English as a com- 
mercial factor. To Gaelic Leaguers there is no reason in 
the world why the Irish cannot be a bi-lingual people, as is 
the case in many other nations. The Gaelic League advo- 
cates the revival of Irish music, Irish dancing, and all Irish 
customs. It would supplant cricket and croquet with foot- 
ball and hurling; it would banish the woolen fabrics of Glas- 
gow, Liverpool and Newcastle-on-Tyne from the stores and 
farm-houses of Ireland, and in their place it would bring the 
native industries of Cork, Dublin and Galway. But, above 
all things, it would cultivate an Irish way of looking at things 
— in other words, it would make for an Irish world-outlook 
suited to the ideas and capacities of the people. 

How far our brothers are succeeding in this immense un- 
dertaking may be judged from the very encouraging reports 
sent to American newspapers at frequent intervals in late 
years, as well as by the verbal accounts of the officers of the 
Gaelic League in America who have made extensive journeys 
through the country. Irish is now being taught in the col- 

721 



722 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Ro es, 

leges, convents and National schools. Irish sermons are be- 
ing preached from cathedral and chapel by archbishops, bish- 
ops and priests, while not even the Irish cardinal himself 
disdains to speak at a public meeting in the National tongue. 
This is great news for the advocates of an Irish Ireland. It 
encourages those of us who have been forced to remain ex- 
iles in this country to lend a helping hand in the struggle 
at home as well as to do something to elevate the social con- 
dition of our people here. There is much that we can do. 
To begin with, we should at least expect that Irish history 
would be taught in the schools built and supported by the 
Irish people and their children. For nearly one hundred 
years Irish Americans, taken as a whole, have learned noth- 
ing of their country and their ancestors other than that which 
was furnished them by the stage Irishman and the vulgar 
cartoons in the so-called comic weekly and daily newspapers. 
The great objection on the part of Irish and Irish- American 
pastors to having Irish history taught in the parochial schools 
is the cost of the text-books now available. They say that 
the children of Irish parents are already sufficiently taxed 
and cannot well afford to pay a dollar or more for a history 
of Ireland in addition to other expenses. The Gaels of Chi- 
cago have set themselves to the task of doing away with this 
obstacle, and in the near future they hope to have ready for 
publication a simple but complete catechism of Irish history 
that will retail at a merely nominal price. This done, we 
can reasonably expect that millions of Irish children will be 
learning to be proud of their nationality, proud of their Irish 
names, and j&lled with the desire to learn more of the lan- 
guage, literature and history of the ancestors who took such 
a glorious part in the world's civilization. Already we have 
accomplished much. Branches of the Gaelic League exist in 
almost every principal city in America, and their influence on 
the community in which they live is great and wide-spread- 
ing. We have five or six newspapers already printing arti- 
cles in Gaelic. We have several Irish music clubs, and per- 
haps even better experts on the bagpipe and violin than ex- 
ist to-day in Ireland. Gaelic chairs have been instituted in 
two or three of the principal educational establishments, from 
California to Washington, D. C. What is yet possible for 
us to accomplish by missionary work and agitation in the 
press and from the platform is evident in the recent action 



The Gaelic League 



723 



of the Boston City Council in directing that Gaelic be taught 
in the high schools of that city. 

In the following pages the leaders of the Gaelic move- 
ment in Ireland have set forth the necessity as well as the 
desirability of de- Anglicising Ireland; they have shown the 
value and intrinsic worth of the things that are peculiarly 
Irish, and the advanced position their readoption and per- 
petuation will secure for the Irish people in the eyes of all 
other nations. 

Chicago, Nov., 1903. 




Composed from the Book of Kells. 



CHAPTER I. 

OUR LANGUAGE OITE NOBLEST INHERITANCE. 

By Right Rev. Patrick O'Donnell, Bishop of RapUoe. 

If the work of the Gaelic League is worth doing at all, it 
is worth doing well and now. It is now or never with the 
Irish language. We have the men, we have the motives, and 
we can have the means for a revival of the Gaelic speech 
in every region where our race has found a home. But let 
the Irish-speaking districts in the old country be contracted 
during the next quarter of a century, as during the last; let 
the brilliant young scholars, priests and laymen who have 
pledged their life-work to the cause of our ancient language 
be upset in this campaign ; let the evidences disappear which 
living men possess of the marvelous beauty of our Celtic 
speech on the lips of the old men of our mountain glens, and 
it would appear very doubtful whether even the magic of 
a native Parliament could restore vigorous life to the inspir- 
ing language of the Gael. 

It sounds profane to ask whether our ancient tongue is 
worth preserving. Yes, it is, even as the spoken language, 
and so well worth preserving that if the effort be not made, 
and, with God's blessing, made sucessfully, we should be 
held accountable for casting from us what is, in the natural 
order, apart from the national spirit, the noblest inheritance 
of our race. 

It is the misfortune of many good Irishmen to know noth- 
ing of the Irish language, however anxious about it; and, 
through an untoward history, it is the way with many others 
to care but little for its fate, because the invader has branded 
it as an inferior tongue. But it never happened that any- 
one competent to form an opinion who knew Irish did not 
esteem it as a noble vehicle of human thought and feeling. 

So long as Latin remained the one language of letters in 
Europe it was customary for writers to vary the uncouth- 
ness of nouns in the vernacular. To this custom our early 
Irish writers were no exception. But this language, spoken 
at the Enach Tireonnill in November, '98, and at Gartan in 
June, '97, was no uncouth language. It was the most beau- 

724 



The Gaelic League 725 

tiful I ever heard. Neither is the tongue spoken every day 
in the Aran Islands or in the glens of Cork or Kerry an un- 
worthy medium of communication between man and man. It 
is the language for the poet, scholar and orator, as well as 
for the farmer, shepherd and artisan. Its power of expres- 
sion, its tunefulness, its compass are not surpassed. The 
blackbird in the bushes, the mist upon the morn, the sun- 
shine on the mountain, the cataract tumbling down from 
Erin's hills, the billows thundering in her caverns or dashing 
against the cliffs, the storm in the valley, the river sweep- 
ing majestically through the plain, have all their counter- 
parts in the language of this island of smiles and tears. 

Neither the memories of the past, dear as they are to us 
all, nor the service of antiquarian research would move the 
hard workers of to-day to devote their lives to the revival of 
Irish if the language in itself were not a noble language. 
But hear it well spoken (in conversation, argniment, sermon 
or poem) and a man of Irish fibre is conscious that he is 
listening to THE language— the one language that touches 
every chord of his feeling, sounds the depths of his heart, 
follows the turns of his mind and expresses the yearnings of 
his whole being. 

Before pronouncing the Celtic tongue as gutteral in sound 
go first and hear it as it is spoken, with unschooled poetic 
tongue and the salt of proverb, by way of those fine old 
Irishmen that are still to be found in the mountain valleys 
of our land, nature's gentlemen; yes, and true gentlemen 
by the blood of a Milesian pedigree that perhaps cannot be 
reckoned through all the generations, but that certainly can 
be seen in every gesture of the hand, in every expression of 
the countenance, in every word of welcome and in every act 
of hospitality. Talk of these men as ignorant! They have 
an education, a refinement, even a wise, far-seeing judgment 
of men and things that books will never bring. You will 
find, too, in the most remote parts of Ireland, tall, venerable 
women of deliberate bearing and queenly mien, who never 
perhaps left their native parish, but who would not be con- 
sidered out of place if transported to the lofty halls of a 
lordly castle. They speak a beautiful language, these peo- 
ple, and they speak it beautifully, and before people bearing 
Irish names commit themselves to indifference about the Irish 
tongue let them try this test or hear a sermon preached in 



726 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

our soul stirring language by an Irish priest who knows its 
idiom and is master of its vocabulary. 

Some of the best Irish I have ever heard was spoken by 
old men who were Protestants around my native place ; and 
it is a good sign that Irishmen, without distinction of creed, 
are now interested in the revival movement. I hope the 
movement may advance with swelling wave into the parts of 
Ireland where Irish is no longer spoken. It is a language 
for the whole island. In a country so far apart from the 
rest of the world there is no danger we shall know too many 
languages. The Irish language movement might sweep the 
whole island, and Ireland become Irish speaking from the 
center to the sea without injuring the cultivation of any other 
language or preventing our young people from acquiring 
that knowledge of English which is so needed for our emi- 
grants. The truth is that the Irish revival movement is the 
most hopeful program yet launched in our midst for the im- 
provement of education all round, and for bringing back again 
to Erin that love of learning and of books that was so char- 
acteristic of her past. 

, The language spoken at Tara and Croghan, at Kincora 
and Cashel, Emonia and Filach, the tongue of Finn and of 
Cuchullin, of Maeve and Macha, of Nial, Brian and Hugh 
Eoe, the speech in which Patrick catechised; the mother 
tongue of Erin's saints and scholars and heroes, the mother 
tongue of the Irish race, should last as long as the race it- 
self to interpret its feelings and voice its aspirations in every 
region where even a few Irishmen are gathered together. 
Now is the time to check its decline and spread far its sway. 
What Father O'Growney, Dr. Douglas Hyde, Dr. Hickey, 
Father Henebry, Mr. MacNeil and their colleagues agree 
upon is sure to be as good a plan as need be desired. Let 
us give them a fair chance of doing a work which they can 
do so well, and which is an obligation on our people. And, 
with a fair field, let us spare them that carping criticism, the 
spirit of which seems to cling to us as a national failing not 
alone indeed in this department of effort for the Irish lan- 
guage. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE LANGUAGE OF OUR SIRES. 

By Rev. Michael P. 0' Rickey, D. D., M. R. I. A., Professor 
of Irish at Maynooth College. 

The Irish language is a vast subject, and admits of va- 
ried and almost endless treatment. I can neither discuss it 
in all its aspects nor deal with it fully and exhaustively un- 
der any one aspect. The chief difficulty is to decide what 
exactly I should say, and what I should leave unsaid. On 
the whole, I cannot, perhaps, do better than discuss the fol- 
lowing questions : (1) Can the Irish language be preserved 
and how? (2) Should it be preserved, revived, cultivated 
and perpetuated, and why? Before I enter upon the dis- 
cussion of these questions it may, however, be well to set 
forth briefly the aims and objects of the Gaelic League. 
Though I am not an official representative of the League, 
though I am merely a worker in the cause in a purely private 
capacity, yet, because of my intimate connection with the 
Central Branch and with the Executive Committee of the 
organization, I may fairly claim to be an authoritative ex- 
ponent of its views and aims. The Graelic League seeks to 
preserve, revive and perpetuate the ancient language of 
Ireland; to promote its cultivation; to arrest its decadence; 
rouse public opinion in its favor, and change the present 
mistaken, pernicious and degrading fashion, which is respon- 
sible more than anything else for its decay; to thoroughly 
secure and effectively safeguard its position where it is still 
spoken and place it in all respects on a secure, satisfactory 
and permanent footing; to gradually extend the area of its 
use as a spoken tongue— making the Irish-speaking districts 
their chief base of operations, and working from these dis- 
tricts outward— until Irish becomes (side by side with Eng- 
lish, but ever receiving the preference where choice is pos- 
sible) the daily speech of the entire nation; to make the pri- 
mary education of the country in the Irish-speaking districts 
thoroughly and unreservedly bi-lingual; to remove the pres- 
ent fatal and exasperating restrictions upon the teaching of 
Irish in the so-called National schools, and to have the lan^ 

727 



728 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

guage taught as a matter of course and as a subject of the 
first importance in all the educational institutions of the land, 
from the highest to the lowest ; in fine, to turn the people of 
the country back upon their own past, upon their history 
and their ancient literature; to induce them to study these 
things until they know them and love them; until they be- 
come part and parcel of themselves; until they are inter- 
woven with the very texture of their intellectual nature and 
twined around the tendrils of their hearts. Such, in brief, 
is the programme of the Gaelic League; such are its aims 
and objects. 

The programme is a vast one, and as glorious and inspir- 
ing as it is vast. But there are those who think it is an im- 
possible progranmie. I do not at all share that view; nor 
do I believe that it is held by anyone who has carefully 
thought the matter out. I do not for a moment underrate 
the difficulty of the enterprise. The forces arrayed against 
us are many and formidable. The difficulties to be overcome, 
the obstacles to be surmounted, are neither few nor trifling. 
We have to fight against false fashion, against appalling in- 
difference and apathy, against prejudice as deep-rooted and 
inveterate as it is unintelligible, against snobbery of the 
vilest and most degrading description, against officialism, 
high and low— educational, judicial, magisterial, and other- 
wise. The odds against us are therefore terrible, but they 
are not overwhelming. The difficulties that strew our path 
do not daunt us in the least. We know full well that we labor 
in a noble and deserving cause, that we are engaged in a 
work of the highest national importance; that we are striv- 
ing for the perpetuation not only of our national language, 
but of our national distinctiveness and identity; that the in- 
terests for which we do battle are high and even holy. 

What others have done, why may we not do! What has 
been done in Greece, in Hungary, in Bohemia, in Provence, 
in Belgium, in Wales, in Finland, is assuredly not impossible 
in Ireland. What is being done successfully at the present 
hour in Brittany and in Highland Scotland we surely need 
not pronounce impossible, nor despair of accomplishing. The 
difficulties that others have had to face were in many cases 
not less grave than those with which we are confronted; in 
some cases, as a matter of fact, they were far more formida- 
ble and disheartening. But they despised difficulties, 



The Gaelic League 729 

brushed aside obstacles, and have either triumphed all along 
the line or are far advanced along the road to victory. Why- 
should not we achieve equal success? Shall it be said that 
Ireland is less patriotic than Finland or Bohemia? Are 
Irishmen less capable of unselfish and sustained national ef- 
fort and enterprise? Do high and noble and inspiring ideals 
appeal with less force to us than to those who inhabit other 
lands? 

The Irish language, we hear people say, is dying a natural 
death. Nothing of the kind. It is being done to death; it 
is being strangled ; everything has been against it, and every- 
body. There has been an all-round conspiracy, active and 
passive, to crush it. "We must insist that there shall be an 
end of this. The language of our race must have fair play, 
and so much the Gaelic League means that it shall have, and 
its members are numerous now and are becoming more nu- 
merous day by day. The fate of the language is, therefore, 
in our own hands. 

Let us examine its position and prospects somewhat in 
detail. It is still spoken by well over a half million of our 
people; the exact number, as shown by the last census, be- 
ing in round numbers, 760,000. About one-seventh of the 
population of the country is, therefore, Irish-speaking. There 
is scarcely any country in which there are not Irish speak- 
ers, however few they may be in some cases, but the vast 
bulk of the Irish-speaking population is along the Atlantic 
seaboard, from Lough Foyle to Waterford Harbor— in Done- 
gal, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry, Cork, and Waterford. This 
is by no means an unimportant factor in the case. Surely, 
one-seventh of the population, thus concentrated, is not a 
bad foundation to build upon. As a matter of fact, there are 
Eureopean languages which are not spoken by so many peo- 
ple, and which are, nevertheless, in a most flourishing con- 
dition. 

If all who speak the Irish language could write and read 
it, which very little effort would soon enable them to do, if 
it came before them weekly in their newspapers, if they 
taught their children to speak it— a thing they should hang 
their heads in shame for not doing; if they insisted upon 
having their children taught Irish as well as English in the 
schools; if they prayed in it in their homes and in their 
churches ; if they heard the word of God announced in it on 



730 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Sundays; if they loved it as they should, took it to their 
hearts and cherished it there, treasured it beyond price, as 
the invaluable national heirloom which it unquestionably is 
—how could it ever die out where it is spoken at present? 
It were utterly impossible. So far from dying, or even de- 
caying, it would flourish once more, and gradually extend. 
The Irish-speaking area would rapidly expand. Along the 
Irish-speaking frontier the English-speaking population, 
through constant intercourse with Irish speakers, would 
gradually acquire an aptitude in speaking their own language, 
and so would the Irish-speaking frontier keep constantly 
moving into the English-speaking area. Along the border 
the long proscribed and neglected language of our sires would 
be ever making new conquests, ever annexing new territory, 
until ultimately, and, I believe before many generations should 
have passed away, the exclusively English-speaking area 
would disappear altogether and the Irish-speaking border be- 
come identical with the Irish coast line. 

Here it may be well not to overlook another important 
factor in the situation. The rural districts are constantly 
feeding the cities and large towns. The cities and towns 
practically renew themselves every few generations by ac- 
cessions from the country. This is a well-known economic 
fact. Think of the possibilities which this opens up for the 
success, under favorable conditions, of a movement like ours. 
If the Irish speakers who migrate in such numbers from the 
country to the towns and cities had the proper spirit, the 
spirit which we are seeking to arouse; if they assumed the 
proper attitude toward their language, the attitude which 
true patriotism suggests and demands ; if they brought with 
them, deep down in their hearts, an undying love for the 
language of their fathers, a devotion to it unchanging and 
unchangeable; if they spoke it on every possible occasion in 
preference to the language of the alien, they would eventu- 
ally conquer the towns, and the cities, too, and make them 
Irish-speaking in the main. 

The Gaelic League was founded to strive for the objects 
I have outlined, and to strive for them on the lines I have 
indicated. Five years ago it had its beginning in Dublin, 
and a very small beginning it was. Seven men, mostly young 
and all of them unknown and without influence, assembled 
&t the house of one of their number to consider the position 



The Gaelic League 731 

of the national language. Apart from their interest in the 
ancient language of the country, they had scarcely a single 
interest in common. The result of their conference was the 
establishment of a society to work on go-ahead and thorough- 
ly practical lines for the preservation of our native tongue. 
The society thus launched was called the Gaelic League. The 
programme of the League was soon before the public. Its 
membership rapidly increased, for the founders meant work, 
were deadly in earnest, and threw themselves heart and soul 
into the enterprise. For a short time the operations of the 
League were confined to Dublin, but from the very outset the 
organization of the provinces, and especially of the Irish- 
speaking districts, constituted the principal plank in its pro- 
gramme. 

The movement thus inaugurated soon began to extend. 
Branches of the League were formed in various places, and 
were duly affiliated to the parent branch, which subsequently 
began to be called the Central Branch. Everything consid- 
ered, the success so far achieved by the Gaelic League is 
simply amazing. During the short period of its existence it 
has considerably impressed the mind of the country, and is 
impressing it more and more every day. The movement 
which it directs gains force and momentum as it advances. 
Its progress in all directions last year— a year consecrated to 
such heroic and patriotic memories— was greater far than 
the progress made during all the previous years of its ex- 
istence. Henceforward still greater and more rapid progress 
may be confidently looked for. We are striving for the estab- 
lishment of branches and classes in all our cities, towns and 
villages, and we believe that our striving will not be in vain. 
We are seeking to have Irish taught in all our colleges, sem- 
inaries, and schools, and to have the present vexatious re- 
strictions upon its teaching in primary schools removed, so 
that all our young people may have every facility afforded 
to learn to at least read and write the language of their 
fathers. The Irish-speaking rural districts, however, form 
the chief object of our solicitude. They are hardest to work 
and organize, while at the same time they merit most at- 
tention, and should be the most promising and fruitful field 
for our operations. They constitute, undoubtedly, the strong- 
holds of the language. There, if t-he language is to live, its 
position must at any cost be secured. 



732 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

The easiest way to compass this would be to have educa- 
tion in all such districts made bi-lingual in the fullest sense. 
To effect this we are straining every nerve, and until it is 
an accomplished fact we shall not relax our efforts. If the 
country made a united demand for it, our views would soon 
prevail, and we are endeavoring to educate public opinion 
up to that point. Meanwhile, however, we must do what lies 
in our power to meet the needs of such districts. Something 
is at present being done. We have inaugurated an Irish Na- 
tional Language Fund, and have appealed to the Irish race 
for subscriptions to it. The object of this fund is to enable 
us to send into the Irish-speaking rural districts traveling 
teachers, who will also act as organizers. Their work will 
be to establish branches of the Gaelic League where it may 
be possible to do so ; to organize classes and to teach them ; to 
train teachers as rapidly as possible who will take charge of 
these classes, so that they themselves may be free to joroceed 
elsewhere to continue their work; to organize public opinion 
in favor of the movement, and secure for it as much influ- 
ential and general support as possible. We have sent a 
teacher already into Connaught, and we are about to send one 
into Munster, and very soon we hope to send a third into 
Ulster. For the organization of Leinster, in which province 
very little Irish is spoken outside of Dublin, we must rely, 
for the present at least, on the establishment and working of 
branches of the League. Were it in our power we should 
send a teacher— nay, several teachers— into every county of 
the thirty-two, but our resources do not yet, at all events, en- 
able us to do more than I have stated, and we must, of course, 
proceed in a strictly business-like way. 

How far we shall enlarge upon our present plan of opera- 
tions depends altogether upon the amount of patronage ex- 
tended to the Irish Language National Fund. But whatever 
we have attempted or accomplished, whatever our past suc- 
cesses or our future prospects, certain it is that the mission 
of the Gaelic League will never be wholly fulfilled, nor will 
the need of such an organization cease until every man and 
woman, every boy and girl in Ireland, from the highest grade 
in the social scale to the lowest, reads and writes the lan- 
guage of our fathers, the language of our saints, the language 
of our great missionaries, the language of our heroes and 
sages ; the language of Patrick, Columbcille and Brigid ; the 



The Gaelic League 733 

language of Cormac Mac Art, Brian Born and Cormac 
MacCuUinan; the language of the O'Neills and the O'Don- 
nells; the language of the Yellow Ford, of Benburb and of 
Limerick's walls; the language of the Four Masters and of 
Goeffrey Keating; the language of Donnchadh Euadh, 
Taohg Gaodhlach and the other Munster bards, than whose 
melodious strains no sweeter music ever saluted Irish ears; 
the language which holds our literature, our history and our 
traditions; the language which shaped our thoughts and our 
ideals, and which still enshrines and so marvelously reflects 
them; the language of our venerable and storied past; the 
language, in fine, of our nation and of our race for full two 
thousand years and more. 

Should not our ancestral tongue, then, be preserved at 
any cost 1 Most assuredly it should. We should consider no 
effort, no sacrifice that can be demanded from us too great 
to attain this end— to hand on to those who come after us 
the speech of those who during the vanished centuries dwelt 
before us in this ancient land. The movement for the pres- 
ervation, revival, cultivation and perpetuation of our native 
speech is of immense national, intellectual, religious and 
moral significance and importance. Of this you may rest as- 
sured. Credit no one who asserts, and would seek to make 
you believe, the contrary. Treat his vaporings with the con- 
tempt they deserve: 

*'0h! Irishmen, be Irish still, stand by the dear old tongue, 
Which, like the ivy to a ruin, to your native land hath clung ; 
Oh ! snatch this relic from the wreck, the only and the last. 
And cherish in your heart of hearts the language of the past. ' ' 

That a distinctive language is the most powerful bond 
of nationality ; its most manifest and impressive symbol ; the 
only certain and indefeasible guarantee of its continuity and 
permanence, is now pretty generally acknowledged, and is 
beginning to be acknowledged more and more every day. 
The idea is not new. How slow soever we may be to realize 
and admit it in Ireland, it is well understood in other lands. 

In the dawn of the Christian era the Roman historian, 
Tacitus, realized its truth, for he wrote: **The language of 
the conqueror in the mouth of the conquered is ever the lan- 
guage of the slave. ' ' The Dutch realized it, for one of their 



?34 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



proverbs runs thus: ''No language, no nation." The great 
German scholar and critic, Schlegel, realized it, for he wrote : 
*'The care of the national language is a sacred trust." The 
cultured Archbishop Trench, an Englishman and a Protest- 
ant, realized it, for he wrote: ''A nation which allows her 
language to go to ruin is parting with the best half of her 
intellectual independence, and testifies to her willingness to 
cease to exist." More than half a century ago our own Davis 
realized it, for he wrote : ''The language of a nation's youth 
is the only easy and full speech for its manhood and its age, 
and when the language of its cradle dies, itself craves a tomb. 
. . . A people without a language of its own is only half a 
nation. A nation should guard its language more than its 
territories— 'tis a surer barrier, and more important frontier 
than fortress or river." 



CHAPTER III. 

THE INTELLECTUAL REVIVAL IN IRELAND. 

By Sir Thomas Grattan Esmonde, Bart. 
The question of an intellectual revival is a somewhat 
difficult subject to deal with-one that may lend itself to 
numerous conjectures, or else may raise questions affecting 
sharply divergent views. On this question we will admit there 
is a difference of opinion. Some say emphatically that there 
is an Intellectual Revival; others with equal emphasis that 
there is none whatever. In my opinion-I give it, of course, 
for what it is worth-there is an Intellectual Revival m 
Ireland, or at all events the commencement of one. I will 
give some reasons for my opinion. 

To begin with, there is a patriotic effort being made to 
revive, or rather to make more widely known and to develop 
our Irish music. And in this connection we can never forget 
the debt of gratitude this country owes to Thomas Moore. 
Tom Moore has been variously and adversely criticised. Not 
that this is an unusual circumstance in Ireland, where every- 
body is criticised more or less, and where nearly everybody 
seems to devote a fair share of time and energy to criticising 
everybody else. Tom Moore has been criticised. He has been 
called all sorts of names. But whatever Tom Moore may be 
said to have been, he was unquestionably a man of genius, a 
man of whom intelligent and educated Irishmen may be proud, 
and to whom, and his associate, Bunting, we should be ever- 
lastingly grateful for their splendid services toward saving so 
many of our national melodies from oblivion. 

The directors of this musical movement have also been 
criticised. I take it that this circumstance does not depress 
them unduly. It is easier to criticise than to do. They have 
but to continue doing, or trying to do, and eventually we may 
hope for a recognized Irish opera, as the outcome of their 

endeavors. x • i j 

Then there is a laudable attempt to create an Irish drama, 
the first systematic effort with which we are acquainted. It 
may be said that no striking success has attended this attempt 
so far, and that in some respects the results of this attempt 

735 



736 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

have been disappointing, but still the attempt is being made, 
and its makers deserve recognition and thanks for making it. 

We have made an unmistakable advance in the develop- 
ment of Irish literature. Many able and scientific workers are 
laboring in this field. The works of pioneers of the past 
generations are being utilized. Increased and increasing 
light is thrown on the unexhaustible sources of our history, 
folk-lore and mythology. So that now-a-days no one can say 
that there is nothing Irish to read. At no time has there been 
a more abundant output of Irish literary work. These cir- 
cumstances alone would go to show that the intellect of Ire- 
land is developing in energy, but that there are further signs 
for those who care to read them. 

One of the most striking of these is the movement for the 
encouragement of Irish industry— a most practical and un- 
answerable proof of the vitality of our intellectual revival. 
This movement is of immense concern. It deserves the sup- 
port of every practical Irishman, but always in the condition 
that Irish products are equal in quality and in price to the 
articles supplied by the foreigner. 

But the most significant sign of the intellectual revival 
in Ireland is the movement for the revival of the Irish 
language. This great movement, in its present shape, is the 
work of the Gaelic League. Long may it prosper in its work. 
The language movement is a most extraordinary one, when 
we reflect on the circumstances of Ireland, and the conditions 
of her immediate past. Consider how the Irish language was 
dead to all outward seeming. Consider how the people of 
Ireland had abandoned it. How, even in Irish-speaking dis- 
tricts, it was looked upon with shame if not with contempt; 
and the explanation of all this was very weak and very un- 
worthy. 

We were told, and we know it to be true, of course, that 
laws were passed against the Irish tongue. Such laws were 
undoubtedly passed, but they were passed hundreds of years 
ago, and have long since fallen into abeyance. So much for 
the law and for the excuse the law afforded. Then it was 
said, and, doubtless, truly said, that the educational authori- 
ties in Ireland were opposing the Irish language, .and de- 
precated its spread among the people. I do not wish to 
argue that point. But supposing the educational authorities 
to have been unfavorable to the study of the Irish language, 



The Gaelic League 737 

how was it that for years, I might say for generations, nobody 
protested against their policy? 

We had not to contend as the Hungarians, for instance, 
had to contend against the Teutonic power, or as the Finns 
and Poles have even now to contend against Russian and 
Grerman autocracy; or as Bretons and Basques have at this 
moment to contend against the systematic policy of the French 
Government, as directed against the native languages of these 
races. And yet all these peoples have preserved their native 
languages, and even in our time they have many of them 
produced great men, giants of literature, speaking and writing 
in their proscribed tongues. Seinkiewicz, the Pole, and Jokai, 
the Hungarian, are famous all the world over where men read 
books. Were it known all the difficulties that these people 
fought against and conquered, our difficulties, such as they 
were, would vanish like smoke in comparison to theirs. Yet 
we deliberately gave up the Irish language, and gave it up 
apparently of our own choice. 

Suddenly a miraculous change has come into the spirit of 
this nation. Everywhere people are interested in Gaelic. 
Everywhere people are learning Gaelic. Danish Dublin and 
Norman Wexford are as eager to cherish the language of 
Finn and Fergus, of Oisin and Deirdri, as Gaelic Cork or 
Kerry, or Galway, or Donegal. In fact, the non-Irish-speak- 
ing districts of Ireland are, if anything, more eager to mas- 
ter the undeniable difficulties of the language than those more 
fortunate places where it has still lingered in the homes of 
the people. It is quite within the region of probability that 
one of these days Dublin will prove one of the most Irish- 
speaking parts of Ireland, so warmly has the matter been 
taken up there by all sorts and conditions of men, and let me 
add, of women. 

This is an extraordinary state of things, considering the 
previous circumstances of Ireland and the conditions of her 
immediate past. By and by it will be chronicled as the most 
surprising development of later Irish history. The Gaelic 
League has indeed worked a miracle, and if this miracle be 
not a sign of a revival of Irish intellect I do not know what 
else it is. These are some of the reasons which led me to 
think that there is really the beginning of an intellectual 
revival in this land of ours. I could give other symptoms of 
this revival but space will not allow. 



738 Ireland^s Crown of Thorns and Roses 

I come now to another question of great importance, and 
one in wMch I regret to say no interest is taken whatever. 
I allude to the question of the publication of Irish records. 
The history of Ireland since the ''Four Masters" has yet 
to he written, and even the marvellous work of the "Four 
Masters" stands in great need of development and elucida- 
tion. The point to which I would like to direct the attention 
of intellectual Ireland is the necessity for the publication of 
our Irish records. For years past I have been like one crying 
in the wilderness, urging on the government the publication 
of Irish records, state papers, and historical manuscripts. 
No one in this country apparently thinks the matter worth 
considering. No expression of public opinion has made itself 
audible during all these years in regard to it. My small 
efforts have, so far, been rewarded with but small results. 
I have, however, been able, after an infinity of trouble, to 
induce the English Historical Manuscript Commission to 
publish the manuscripts of the Irish Franciscans, a unique 
and most valuable historical collection, in which there is a 
considerable element of Celtic work, and some Celtic work 
of immense value. 

These manuscripts have now been some three years in pro- 
cess of publication, and have not yet been issued. I understand 
now that they are only partially to be published. I am by no 
means confident that what is to be published of them will give 
much satisfaction to the Irish historical or antiquarian stu- 
dents, and I assert that it is most unsatisfactory, while the 
Historical Manuscript Commission and the Record Commis- 
sion are so busily engaged in publishing English state papers, 
that so small a share of their attention should be devoted to 
the state papers and the records of Ireland, and that when 
once in a way they do take up the publication of Irish records, 
the occasion is not utilized to better purpose. 

It is of the greatest possible importance that the history 
of our country should be known to us, that our ancient legends 
and mythology should be preserved. We have numbers of 
able men in Ireland eminently qualified for this work, while 
the mass of material is perfectly amazing. The illustrious 
'Curry tells us that there are thousands upon thousands 
of priceless Irish manuscripts unpublished, unread in the 
libraries of the Irish Academy and of Trinity College. Our 
Irish Record Office is a storehouse of historical information. 



The Gaelic League 739 

Bermingham Tower, in Dublin Castle, is crammed with it. 
The British Museum, the Bodlian Library, have immense 
quantities of unpublished manuscripts relating to Ireland. 
All over the Continent, in the Low Countries, in France, in 
Switzerland, in Germany, in Spain, and last but not least, in 
the wonderful Vatican Archives there are innumerable papers 
and documents relating to the history and literature of Ire- 
land. 

All these sources of information are so far practically 
untapped. It is time that something should be done to make 
them reveal their hidden treasures. We must remember that, 
after all, our time is short. In a few years our place here 
will know us no more ; and while the precious and unredeem- 
able period of our short span of existence is fleeting away we 
are standing still in the matter of historical information. 

We cannot aiford to stand still. We cannot afford to lose 
our precious time. The knowledge of our own history and 
of all that the word history implies is essential to our useful 
service of our country; that history which has been so beau- 
tifully described as ''That ancient and lovely history, which 
has the romance of chivalry, the dignity of learning and piety, 
and the fragrance of a far-oflp fairy tale." Why not insist 
upon obtaining as much knowledge of this history as we can ? 

The history, the literature, the mythology, and the tradi- 
tions of Ireland for three thousand years are stored in the 
public archives, useless, unknown. Why not insist on a 
commencement being made of their publication? Why should 
we not have an Irish Record Commission, or an Irish His- 
torical Manuscript Commission, to make a beginning of the 
important task of removing the obscurity which shrouds the 
annals of Ireland? The existing commissions are of no use 
to us ; they are unsympathetic ; they are ignorant— I use not 
the word in an offensive sense, but we all know well that no 
Englishman can ever know anything or understand anything 
about Ireland. We can have no satisfaction without a Record 
Commission of our own. The intellect of Ireland should 
clamor for its appointment, and should enlist the support of 
the public opinion of the country for the establishment of an 
Irish Record Commission, a reasonable demand, which has 
been made for so long, and which I, for one, will continue to 
make as long as I have a seat in the English Parliament. 

Another question to which we should direct our attention 



740 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

is that of tlie preservation of Irish antiquities. 'Any intelli- 
gent and patriotic Irishman who travels through Ireland must 
be grieved and shocked at the condition of the antiquities of 
the country. Everywhere he sees marks of ruthless destruc- 
tion. Infinitely more injury has been done the antiquities 
of Ireland by the selfishness and the cupidity of Irishmen 
themselves than by all the storms of war which have swept 
this country time out of mind. Any one who has taken the 
trouble to look over so recent a publication as an ordnance 
map will realize the wholesale obliteration of our antiquarian 
monuments, which has taken place even within the past few 
years. Old castles pulled down to build piggeries; chiselled 
stones torn out of our ancient churches and monasteries to 
build ditches and to hang gates upon; raths, duns, Druid 
stones, scattered, overthrown for so-called utilitarian pur- 
poses. 

The situation to any intelligent man is simply heart- 
rending. And all the time this constant destruction in our 
land of what is, in one sense, the most priceless possession 
of any country, and should be held sacred in ours, evokes no 
condemnation from anybody. It is regarded at all hands with 
equanimity if not with tacit approval. 

I repeat, our ancient ruins are among our most precious 
possessions. They should be held holy by the public opinion 
of the country. As things go, there is nobody, or there has 
been nobody, to protect them. A small number of these ruins 
have been placed under the nominal protection of the Board 
of Works, but in this respect the performance of the Board 
of Works are many on paper, and appear mainly in the 
printed statements of the yearly Civil Service estimates. 

The duty of protecting our ancient monuments, as well 
as the right, which implies the duty, rests with the people of 
our country; and enlightened public opinion should induce 
the people to discharge their duty with zeal as well as with 
reverence. Under the new Local Government Act certain 
powers in the direction of the preservation of our ancient 
ruins are given to our county councils. These powers, as 
small as they are, will, I hope, be eventually utilized. I 
repeat again for the third time that our ancient monuments 
are among our most precious national possessions. Their 
loss is irreparable. Every year they are growing less, and 
if something be not shortly done, in the direction I indicate, 



The Gaelic League 741 

this country will have nothing more to recommend it to the 
historical or antiquarian mind than the newest township of 
the newest territory of the newest of new countries. 

I would respectfully suggest to all who agree with me that 
they should band themselves together for the preservation 
of the monuments of old Ireland. They should join the 
various antiquarian societies, of which there are several in 
this country. They should join these societies; they should 
furnish their minds with the history of the local antiquities, 
with the traditions of their localities. In this way they will 
not merely add another source of enjoyment in their own 
lives, but they will confer an incalculable boon upon the Ire- 
land of the future. 

In connection with the antiquities of Ireland I would 
direct your attention to a question of great moment, which 
has, apparently, aroused no interest in our country what- 
ever. I allude to the case of the Irish gold ornaments, which 
has been taken out of Ireland and illegally acquired by the 
British Museum. Some few of us have been making a long 
and difficult fight to obtain their restoration. During this 
fight the intellect of Ireland appears to have been asleep. 
We have received no assistance from it, and, speaking broad- 
ly, no one seems to care two straws about the matter. 

The story of the abstraction and retention of these orna- 
ments by the British Museum is a sorry one— I say nothing 
about it for the present. These ornaments, however, belong 
to Ireland by right and by law. It is only by the gross 
remissness of those whose duty it was to guard the rights of 
Ireland in this particular that they have ever departed from 
our shores. I will content myself by saying that they are 
absolutely essential to make the collection of Irish gold orna- 
ments in the Irish National Museum perfect. With these 
gold ornaments the collection in our National Museum will 
be far and away the finest of its own kind in the world, and 
will compare favorably, merely as a collection of gold orna- 
ments, with the most famous collections in existence. I speak 
from my own experience, as I have seen most of the great 
treasure hoards of other countries, from the Aztec collection 
in the National Museum of Mexico to the Mycoene collection 
at Athens. 

At the time when these ornaments were taken from us, 
just as in the matter of our language, Ireland remained supine 



742 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

and allowed herself to be robbed. She might have taken a 
lesson from the tactics of her despoilers. Time after time, 
since the struggle for the restoration of these ornaments be- 
gan, the British Museum, the English Archaeological Societies, 
and men of learning in the English antiquarian world, fully- 
understanding the great value of these treasures, have pro- 
tested against their restoration to Ireland; and have used, 
and are using, every effort to frustrate our attempts to regain 
them. Only the other day a petition was ordered to be pre- 
sented to the king by the English Antiquarian Society, pray- 
ing his majesty to use all his influence to prevent the restora- 
tion of these ornaments to Ireland. Meanwhile our public 
boards, our antiquarian societies, do nothing. They leave the 
English in possession of the field, and by their silence they 
condone this latest plunder of this country. 

Notwithstanding the apathy of the Irish public, we have 
been able to do something towards bringing the British 
Museum to book, and I am glad to say that, at long last, the 
English Treasury have gone to law with the Museum to 
compel them to give up these ornaments. In a very short 
time you will probably see the action of the English courts 
on this matter. The English courts will, no doubt, admin- 
ister the law, but justice, as we know, is blind, and I am not 
at all certain that the voice of an angry Irish people might 
not have something to say in influencing a decision in favor 
of Ireland's rightful claim for the restoration of her own 
property. If we are to get back these ornaments we must 
now be up and doing, and I would appeal to the energy of 
intellectual Ireland to save those priceless relics to the 
country. ( Since the foregoing was written the gold ornaments 
have been restored.— Compilers.) 

Another direction in which we might direct the reviving 
or the revived intelligence of Ireland is in the encouragement 
of Irish art. Art is a plant of very slow growth. It requires 
care. It requires generous treatment. Ireland, for many 
reasons, has not been a propitious soil for the cultivation of 
the fine arts. At the present moment Irish art is only 
struggling for existence. A little is being done in metal work. 
Some of our jewelers— notably Messrs. Johnson, of Dublin, 
whose exhibit elicited so much praise at the Paris exhibition 
—are doing some really beautiful work in reproduction of 
ancient metal work of Ireland, But this is only a minor 



The Gaelic League 743 

branch of art, and it is being carried on with us only in a 
small way. Ancient Irish metal work is exquisitely beau- 
tiful ; old Irish silver commands the highest price in the mar- 
ket. We have no lack of models, or of inspiration, for the 
development of this branch in Ireland; all that is wanted is 
its patronage by the Irish public. When we buy articles of 
jewelry or of plate for our own use or for presents for our 
friends, we can do real service to what was once a famed 
industry in Ireland, by buying things of Irish workmanship 
and made to Irish designs. 

In the other branches of art what do we find? Take 
architecture. In architecture there is practically nothing 
being done. In other lands it has developed into wonderful 
things. There are some who hold that the Irish monks were 
the originators of the stately Gothic style. There is certainly 
much to be said in favor of this theory. However this may 
be, specifically Irish architecture has not developed. There 
is a field for the development of a distinctly Irish school of 
architecture in Ireland ; and possibly, if judicious steps were 
taken in connection with the erection of new public buildings 
in this country, much encouragement could be given to our 
architects, and much stimulus to an Irish Architectural 
School. 

We have in our ancient ruins, whether Irish or Norman, 
examples sufficient to lay the foundation of an Irish school— 
of an Irish style. I do not suggest, of course, that we should 
live in round towers or in fortified houses, or that ancient 
type of churches would be found suitable to the requirements 
of our modern congregations. But if our architects pro- 
ceeded in the spirit of Irish architecture as exemplified in 
the ruins of Ireland, we would eventually produce an Irish 
type, as distinctively Irish as the beautiful English country 
house is English, or the Scotch mansion Scotch; or as what 
is known as the Colonial style in the United States is dis- 
tinctively American; or as the stately churches of Italy and 
Spain reflect the spirit and characteristics of their people. 

As to painting and sculpture, the outlook is less hopeful. 
Both these branches of art require wealth for their cultiva- 
tion and development, and Ireland is a poor country. The 
customary patrons of painting and sculpture in other lands 
from time immemorial have been the aristocracy of those 
countries. We have no landed aristocracy in Ireland now; 
they have disappeared from among us. Their disappearance 



744 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

may be set down to various causes. I attribute it mainly to 
two causes— First, the overtaxation of the country through 
the breach of the treaty of the Act of Union, of which they 
had become the supporters, and secondly, to their fortunate 
inability to identify themselves with the Nationalist aspira- 
tions of their countrymen. Our landed aristocracy has dis- 
appeared, or is disappearing, and no mercantile aristocracy 
has yet arisen to take their place, with the exception of a few 
men mainly associated with the brewing or distillery industry, 
of whose claims to be considered patrons of Irish art I have 
yet to be informed. Consequently, Irish painters and sculp- 
tors have no immediate prospect in their own country. Their 
prospect, however, is not absolutely hopeless. 

We have talent. We have had it, at any rate. We have 
produced sculptors and painters of no mean quality within 
comparatively recent years. It is true that these men have 
been mainly driven to utilize their talents abroad. But Ire- 
land has produced them ; and Ireland can produce them. The 
dififiLCulty with Ireland in her present circumstances is to find 
her artists' opportunity. 

I have often thought that possibly a scheme could be 
devised, perhaps through the medium of our County Coun- 
cils and our public boards for the encouragement of Irish art. 
It might be possible, by encouraging our artists to portray 
important events or great figures in Irish history, to profit 
themselves, as the results of their labor would certainly profit 
the country. These are some of the questions to the consid- 
eration of which the intelligence of Ireland may profitably 
devote itself. There are many other questions also; but I 
will not enlarge upon my subject, much as I am tempted to 
do so. 

Believing, however, as I do in the immense value of insti- 
tutions such as the Gaelic League, in their power of influenc- 
ing the minds and cultivating the intelligence of the young 
men of Ireland, and so fitting them for the better discharge 
of their duty as citizens; believing, too, in the poetry, the 
enthusiasm, the patriotism, of the rising generation of Irish- 
men, in the love of Ireland, and in their reverence for her 
pathetic past, I earnestly invite my readers to reflect on the 
circumstances of our Motherland from the standpoint I have 
presented, so that our priceless intellectual heritage may 
suffer no diminution and be handed down strengthened, beau- 
tiful and increased. 



CHAPTER IV. 

IRISH MUSIC. 

By Reverend Richard Henebry, Ph. D. 

Our music is an integral part of our civilization. Our 
old life was interwoven with golden threads of music, ever 
harmonious with the color scheme of the fabric. There was 
no feeling of the heart, thought of the brain, or word from 
the lips but had each its counterpart in song. Where expres- 
sion failed music became its complement and carried the 
thought home. Every action and occupation of a lifetime 
had its accompanying song. If, then, our language enshrines 
our nationality and must be preserved, our music, that cannot 
be divorced from it, must be preserved also. 

As in the case of our language, but to a far greater extent, 
the densest ignorance prevails with regard to the real nature 
of Irish music. A ''Feis Ceoil" organized in Dublin for its 
cultivation has utterly jumped the track and now devotes 
itself to the study and imitation of classical oratorios, with 
what success I have not heard. I doubt if a single member 
of the party had the least suspicion of the true nature of the 
object they had set themselves to study. And this was in 
Ireland. 

As our language was ousted by a foreign tongue so, also, 
a foreign music ousted ours. There is some difference in 
the operation, however. One may learn our own and the for- 
eign language, but the two systems of music are totally 
irreconcilable. 

Of reliable sources of information concerning Irish music 
I only know four in existence now. They are: 

First. The mouths of the people. True Irish music may 
still be heard from old women singing, boys whistling, and 
girls lilting or jigging, as we call it. 

Second. The music of the Irish bagpipe, whereof the 
chanter still retains, probably roughly, the Irish scale; also 
fiddlers who still play in the Irish manner. One who has ever 
heard it can tell at once when a fiddle speaks with the Irish 
voice. 

746 



746 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Third. The valuable introduction to 'Curry's ''Manners 
and Customs," written by Dr. 'Sullivan, late professor in 
the Queen's College, Cork. A study of this paper will soon 
convince anyone that the great and practically the only dif- 
ference separating Irish and modern music is one of scale. 
But this is a fundamental difference. 

Fourth. The introduction to Bunting's collection of Irish 
music. Bunting was a person who instituted a contest for 
Irish harpers in Belfast a little over a hundred years ago. 
He proceeds from the standpoint of modern music and re- 
gards everything not in conformity with it as "imperfect." 

However, through his teaching we can reconstruct the 
system of tuning the harp and glean a good deal of valuable 
information on the method of playing besides. Unfortunately 
this book is now excessively rare. It seems a pity when so 
much useless matter is falling from the press every day, that 
somebody does not give us the valuable portions of Bunting's 
book in a magazine or newspaper article. It has been used 
as a source by 'Sullivan, and so probably the whole sub- 
stance of it may be consulted at any ordinary library. 

Outside of these there are no authorities on Irish music. 
Moore's melodies and all published collections must be ex- 
cluded. Everybody who has turned his attention to the mat- 
ter must notice the great difference in a tone-color between 
the rendering of an Irish air, let us say one of Moore's, by 
a modern singer to piano accompaniment and the same air 
rendered by an old woman in the traditional manner, who is 
utterly ignorant of modern music. Also the fiddle in the 
hands of an old, untrained performer, at home speaks Irish, 
whereas all the art and skill of Herr Joachim could not take 
a single note out of the same instrument. The reason is that 
the two musical systems differ fundamentally in scale. The 
intervals into which the octave is broken to constitute a scale 
are not coincident and there rise 'two music schemes that are 
entirely incommensurable. The theory put forward by 
'Sullivan may be consulted in the place already cited. It 
is too technical for consideration here. 

There are fundamental differences in the scale and in the 
key system. The differences of interval are minute but 
subtle, they give the peculiar color and character to Irish 
music. It is evident, therefore, that music composed on one 
of those scales cannot be played on the other j in other words, 



The Gaelic League 747 

it is impossible to play Irish airs on the modern scale, or 
upon a modern instrument. It follows, then, that all collec- 
tions of Irish music written in the modern notation are wrong, 
though perfect Irish music may be made from them by a 
bagpiper, or one who plays the fiddle in the Irish way. For 
the fiddle has a fingerboard that will give infinitesimal varia- 
tions in tone, according to the stopping position of the finger 
on the string. On the other hand, the piano has fixed notes, 
and besides its scale does not exactly coincide either with the 
Irish or the modern scale. Hence, if one attempts an Irish 
air on that instrument the characteristic tone-color evap- 
orates immediately and the result is by no means Irish music. 
This fact is not generally known. 

Besides those enumerated already there are in addition 
differences in phrasing, feeling and technique, or execution. 
To me there is nothing so wholly discomposing as listening to 
an Irish air sung with all the saccharine expression of the 
vaudeville stage to a jangling piano accompaniment. Wlien 
I compare the wrong tone-scheme, the bad phrasing, the pert, 
exaggerated, hysterical and false expression with the tradi- 
tional version of the same air as sung by an old woman, with 
its full, rich intervals and simple feeling, the veritable Voice 
and refrain of the Gaelic heart, the contrast between modern 
sham and Celtic truth becomes too poignant for my equan- 
imity. 

To preserve Irish music the modern kind must be rigidly 
excluded; tin whistles, brass bands, concertinas, but espe- 
cially the do, re, mi, fa of the school-mistress. Let the boys 
be taught the fiddle from traditional players, though the 
technique of handling that instrument might be borrowed 
from the modern style. Especially the Irish bagpipes, which 
should not be confounded with the Highland bagpipe, must 
be brought into fashion again and children must be diligently 
taught to play them according to the pure method. It is a 
sample of the virulent ignorance that possessed our fathers 
concerning things that some time ago in the first ecclesiastical 
seminary which I entered in Ireland, the students were per- 
mitted the exercise of every musical instrument with the strict 
exception of the Irish bagpipes. To meet the call for instru- 
ments the making of chanters might be encouraged, and even 
flutes and fifes could be holed to form the notes of the scale, 
to the very notable profit of Irish music. Little girls should 



748 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

be taught to sing as their mothers do, and every boy should 
be able to whistle correctly quite a collection of Irish tunes. 

In another direction all traditional tunes still extant must 
be collected as soon as possible from the people so that 
blunders and perversions of previous collectors may be cor- 
rected, especially Moore's, and in order that the great body 
of unpublished music may be snatched from the mouth of the 
grave. Persons with a good knowledge of the theory of 
modern music and a scientific grasp of accoustics must go 
amongst the people and collect the Irish scale or scales, in 
fact, produce a scientific treatise on our music system, and 
devise a method of notation. Then, having found our scale, 
our own do, re, mi, fa, can be taught our children. Perhaps 
this task may be undertaken by Father Bewerunge, professor 
of music at Maynooth College. 

Lovers of Irish music generally will be surprised and 
delighted, as I was, to discover that there exists in Chicago 
a lively activity in this matter, and in the right direction. 
An influential and numerous body of experts devote their 
leisure time to the cultivation of traditional Irish music in 
that city. The happy condition is due to the interests and 
efforts of Mr. Francis O'Neill, general superintendent of 
police. Mr. 'Neill is himself an excellent performer on the 
pipes, and has devoted a lifetime to the collection of Irish 
music. It mattered not the source, he was ever alert, and can 
truly give testimony that he has rescued many a melody from 
lips that were soon afterwards sealed in death. 

Amongst the most prized of his great collection is a parcel 
of about four hundred airs that his mother used to sing. In 
thus forestalling the undertaker and rescuing those priceless 
gems from oblivion, Mr. O'Neill has rendered services of 
incalculable value to the cause of Irish nationhood. For in 
the new light that has broken upon regenerated Irishmen they 
regard one shred or fragment of the ''jewels of their fathers" 
as of greater worth than all that vile trumpery that has been 
imposed upon them during the terrible days of their dark 
ages, now, thank heaven, passing away. 

He has ever been a stanch friend to Irish musicians, and 
brought to light many an unconsidered custodian of our music 
who must otherwise lapse into silence for apathy born of the 
untoward conditions by which they found themselves sur- 
rounded. He promoted informal meetings of pipers and 



The Gaelic League 749 

fiddlers at his own house, and encouraged players from all 
parts of Ireland by his generous patronage, and taught his 
children to play Irish music in the Irish way. 

A foretaste of the fruits of his labors was given at the 
Auditorium meeting, during the Gaelic League convention of 
1901, where 3,000 people were moved to ecstasy at the 
thrill of their own music. What a rebuke to those of our 
people who ignorantly deem Irish music vulgar because it is 
not fashionable. But a full fruition of the pleasure that 
Chicago players can afford was accorded me by the privilege 
of an invitation to a piper's meeting held at Mr. O'Neill's. 
The full assemblage was present and almost every class of 
music was performed as ever before in Ireland. I was 
astonished at the wonderful proficiency of the players and the 
inexhaustible extent of their repertoire. All the reels, the 
hornpipes and doubles I had learned to fiddle as a boy, to- 
gether with all the airs I had learned from my mother, were 
there, and a thousand others. 

I wish to say that I know nothing in art so grand, so 
thrilling as the irresistible vigor and mighty onrush of some 
reels they played, filled with the hurry of flight, the majesty 
of battle-strife, the languishment of retreat, the sweep of a 
rallying charge with a laugh at fate, though yet the whole 
was ever still accompanied by the complaining magic of a 
minor tone like the whisper of a far-away sorrow. Truly, a 
good reel records the heart throbs of our fathers and the wind 
that ruffled those dark and hidden waters, the soul of the 
Gael. And some of the older song-airs revealed with sob and 
sigh a kind of secret that may not be spoken for very fear. 
And those— the untutored Irish account vulgar! 

Then Roger 'Neill and Tom Ennis, two little boys, played 
the fiddle in the Irish manner. This affords proof that Irish 
music has vigor, has enough root in Chicago to propagate it- 
self. I have heard very much of the music of Ireland, and 
heard it often, but never yet better than that played by the 
Chicago pipers and fiddlers at Mr. O'Neill's. 



CHAPTER V. 

A SURVEY OF CELTIC PHILOLOGY, 

By Professor Kuno Meyer, Ph. D. 

A rapid and brief survey of the work at present being car- 
ried on in the domain of Celtic philology— philology both in 
its English and continental sense— will, I hope, be deemed 
sufficiently interesting to engage for half an hour or so the 
attention of my readers. It will, if it does nothing else, show 
you the extent of the field of research and the number and 
variety of workers. My chief difficulty in treating so large 
a subject thus briefly is, next to the unavoidable dryness of 
enumeration, one of limitation and selection, and I shall have 
to confine myself to an account of works quite recently pub- 
lished or still in hand, and mainly, though not exclusively, 
to the chief representatives of the Celtic speech— Irish and 
Welsh. 

What my sketch thus loses in breadth and fullness it will 
gain in "actuality," to borrow a French word. 

In the language of our mechanical age I will take a series 
of snapshots at Celtic scholars all the world over as I find 
them engaged at their work. 

It may be said without exaggeration and without fear of 
contradiction, that at no time have Celtic studies been in a 
more flourishing condition than they are at the present mo- 
ment. The number of students, both native and foreign, has 
for several years been rapidly and constantly increasing. It 
is easier for the beginner now than it used to be, to get a 
good training and to lay a thorough foundation for inde- 
pendent research. The output of scholarly works in all 
departments— much of it of first-rate importance— has grown 
so much that already it is no easy matter to keep abreast of 
the latest research. 

Students of Aryan philology are finding out that a knowl- 
edge of the Celtic languages is to them as important as that 
of the other great branches of the Indo-European family. 

Lastly, the interest of the general public in Celtic investi- 
gation and its results is widening and deepening. It may 

750 



The Gaelic League 751 

be said that tlie public at large is at last beginning to realize 
that there is such a thing as a large and ancient and im- 
portant literature in Irish and Welsh of which a mere frac- 
tion only has hitherto been published; that there is here a 
vast field of research waiting for workers, that for the his- 
tory of mediasval literature, for the history of these islands, 
for the history of early western Christianity— that literature 
is of the utmost value and importance, that indeed such his- 
tories cannot be written until all the material that this litera- 
ture furnishes are before them in critical editions. 

It is, perhaps, considerations of this kind that have 
weighed with the university authorities in Prussia in their 
recent decision to establish at Berlin the first German Chair 
of Celtic philology and literature. This is a step forward 
which all Celtic students should hail with acclamation, all the 
more as one of the leading scholars of Germany, long well- 
known wherever there are serious Celtic students, has been 
called to fill it— Professor H. Zimmer, hitherto of Griefs- 
wald. 

This augurs well for the future of our studies, for there 
is no more active, no more devoted student of everything 
connected with the Celt, or one of whom his pupils speak 
with greater admiration, than Professor Zimmer, and so we 
may soon hope to see a flourishing school of Celtic philology 
rising at Berlin. 

Would that Ireland were to follow suit by establishing at 
Trinity College or at the new Catholic University, soon, I 
hope, to become a reality, or at both, a Celtic Chair for the 
encouragement of these studies among professed students. 

Another welcome sign of the spread of Celtic studies has 
been the foundation and success by the side of her elder 
sister, the "Eevue Celtique," of a second continental period- 
ical, entirely devoted to Celtic lore, the *'Zeitschrift fur 
Celtische Philologie.'' It was the intention of its founders 
that this should be a truly international periodical, and their 
expectations have been amply fulfilled. Not to speak of the 
numbers already published, I may mention, in order to show 
the widely representative character of its contributions and 
contributors, that the forthcoming number will contain among 
other things an attempt to interpret a Gaulish inscription 
by a young Celtic student of Christiania, a pupil of Professor 
Sophus Bugge; a study of Welsh metrics and the laws of 



752 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

cynghanedd by Professor Morris Jones, of Bangor ; tlie 
phonetic description of a Scotch-Gaelic dialect by a native 
scholar, Dr. Henderson; an investigation into the language 
of the old Irish glosses of Milan, by Professor Strachan; 
Breton etymologies, by Professor Loth, and so on. 

To complete my survey of what is being done in Grermany 
at present, I may mention that Dr. Holder is gradually ap- 
proaching the end of his Thesaurus of the Gaulish and early 
British vocabulary; that Professor Windisch is engaged on 
a second edition of his Irish granunar; a comprehensive edi- 
tion and translation of that most important Irish historical 
tale, the Tain Bo Cuailgne, which will appear under the 
auspices and at the expense of the Royal Saxon Society of 
Science; that Professor Zimmer has just published a short 
but important article on the ancient Celtic church, in which 
he deals in his usual clear and incisive way with the many 
difficult problems connected with that subject, the first coming 
of Christianity to these islands and its early history. 

He states once more his well-known views as to St. Patrick 
and his belief that he and Palladius were one and the same 
person. Zimmer has also started a grammatical discussion of 
vital importance for the history of the Irish language, a dis- 
cussion centering around the use and function of the little 
verbal participle or preposition ro, in which Professor Thur- 
neyson, of Freiburg, and Professor Strachan, of Manchester, 
have taken part. 

These and similar investigations will ultimately prove of 
the most far-reaching result, as they will enable us to date 
more accurately the remains of early Irish literature. 

Dr. Finck, of Marburg, the well-known author of a gram- 
mar and dictionary of the Aran dialect, and his sister. Miss 
Finck, have completed an exhaustive glossary to the eight- 
eenth century classic, ''Donlevy," which under the name of 
** Contributions to Irish Lexicography," I have begun a 
middle and Early-Irish dictionary which is now advanced to 
the letter C. Both these works are appearing in a periodical 
entirely devoted to the Celtic lexicography. 

Professor Stern, of Berlin, continues his researches into 
the language and literature of his two favorite branches of 
Celtic speech, Welsh and Scotch-Gaelic, or Albano-Gaelic, as 
he prefers to call it. It is a great pity that for want of 
support his projected new edition of the oldest Scotch col- 



The Gaelic League 753 

lection of poetry, the ''Book of tlie Dean of Lisraore," will 
not, I am afraid, see the light of day. 

There are quite a number of young scholars in Germany 
now devoting attention to Celtic studies and advancing them 
by their own researches mainly on philological lines, among 
whom I will mention Drs. Zupitza, Foy and Summer. But 
what is perhaps the most hopeful sign is the spread of Celtic 
studies during the last few years to Scandinavia, to Den- 
mark, Sweden and Norway, where several brilliant young 
scholars have by their work in Irish grammar at once taken 
their places among the foremost rank of Celtic scholars. I 
refer to Professor Holger Pedersen, a pupil of Zimmer's, to 
Dr. Sarauw, of Copenhagen, and Dr. Liden, of Gotenburg. 
Though by the general reader such purely grammatical work 
can hardly be appreciated, it is work like theirs that really 
lays the foundation for much, I had almost said, for every- 
thing else. 

As "Whitley Stokes once said: "We must thresh and 
winnow before we reap," and I may add that if in threshing 
our flails sometimes hit a fellow-worker somewhat harshly 
and make him cry out, that is part of the game. Each one 
receives and deals his blows in turn. 

In France, as is natural, the attention of Celtic scholars 
turns mainly on the investigation of Gaulish remains and 
the language and literature of Brittany. The discovery of 
the inscription of Coligny has lately set many pens in motion. 
Through the exertions of French and Breton scholars the 
dialects of Brittany are better studied and more fully de- 
scribed than any other branch of living Celtic speech. 

But French scholars do not neglect Irish or Welsh. In- 
deed Professor Loth, of Eennes, has lately been doing work 
which we should more naturally expect from native Welsh 
scholars. His translations of the Mabinogion is a great 
advance on Lady Guest's bowdlerized version, his book on 
Welsh metrics is a comprehensive treatment of a very dif- 
ficult subject, but will be largely corrected and supplemented 
by Professor Morris Jones, himself next to the venerable 
Archdruid, one of the foremost masters of cynghanedd in 
Wales. Lastly, French scholars have lately been very active 
in working at that most complicated of all Celtic problems, 
the Arthurian legend and its probable Celtic origins, an 
activity which is mainly due to the impulse given to these 



754 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

studies by Professor Zimmer's epocH-making investigations. 

Among the ranks of native Breton scholars the death of 
M. de la Borderie leaves a breach not easily filled. Fortu- 
nately, he had completed, before his death, the third volmne 
of his great history of Bretany, which brings the history of 
that country down to the fourteenth century. 

I must not leave the continent without referring to Italy's 
contributions to Celtic research. Count Nigra has indeed 
never followed up his promising early work on the Old Irish 
glosses, but Professor Ascoli is still continuing to work on his 
monumental edition of the Milan and St. Gall glosses and 
the Old Irish glossary accompanying it. 

Passing now in my review to Great Britain and Ireland, I 
rejoice to be able to record a great activity on almost all 
sides. In Wales and Ireland especially, owing no doubt to the 
activity of the various societies for the preservation and 
cultivation of the national language, the number of well- 
equipped students is steadily increasing, and work, surpass- 
ing in many respects that of the older generation of native 
scholars is being published. 

In his island home at Cowes, Whitley Stokes, the doyen 
of Celtic scholars, continues his life's work indefatigably 
and with unabated vigor. Among the many and varied works 
by which he has lately enriched our knowledge of early Irish 
literature I will mention his edition of the ** Annals of Tiger- 
nach," of the "Amra Colum Cille,'* and a complete edition 
of the largest Fenian, or Ossianic tale, the **Agallamh na 
Senorach." His edition and translation of the **Brmden Da 
Derga," now publishing in the Revue Celtique, next to his 
* ' Death of Cuchulinn, ' ' is, in my opinion, the finest rendering 
of an ancient Irish tale that has yet been achieved. 

In conjunction with Professor Strachan, Dr. Stokes is 
also engaged on a Thesaurus of all Old Irish glosses, inter- 
linear versions and other pieces of prose and poetry, the first 
volume of which is soon to be published by the Cambridge 
University Press. At the same press, Standish Hayes 

'Grady, most learned of all native Irish scholars, will soon, 

1 hope, bring out his long-promised edition of the "Cathreim 
Toirdhealbhaigh," and of that curious version of Lucan's 
Pharsalia known as the *'Cath Cahtarda." Would that he 
might also continue the catalogue of the Irish MSS. in the 
British Museum, the first part of which I am glad to hear can 



The Gaelic League 755 

now be bought. It is, as I have had occasion before to say, 
not only the first reliable printed catalogue of any large col- 
lection of Irish MSS., but the editor's fine translations and 
curious notes make it one of the most important as well as 
most delightful Irish books ever published— nor is there any 
scholar living now who can interpret for us the style and the 
spirit of bardic poetry in so masterly a manner. Speaking of 
catalogues, I may here mention a rumor which I hope is true, 
that the Irish Parliamentary Party is, next session, going to 
ask the government for a grant towards cataloguing Irish 
MSS. If the result of such action would be anything like what 
has lately been done for Welsh MSS. by the indefatigable 
labors of Gwenogfryn Evans, Irish students will have reason 
to congratulate themselves. Dr. Norman Moore, the trans- 
lator of "Windisch's grammar, has completed his gallery of 
biographies of Irish Saints and Kings in the '^Dictionary of 
National Biography. ' ' I myself have lately drawn to light a 
number of Early Irish poems, a ''Dirge of Niall of the Nine 
Hostages,'* the "Song of the Cailleach Beirre," the "Song 
of the Sea, ' ' wrongly ascribed to the celebrated poet Eumann ; 
the "Song of Car oil's Sword," a fine specimen of court- 
poetry and a spirited nature-poem which I call "King and 
Hermit." Most of these poems have come down to us in 
comparatively late MSS. only, but on the evidence of the 
language we are justified in assigning to them a far earlier 
origin. Professors Atkinson and Bernard have brought out 
a new edition of the "Liber Hymnorum." From the former, 
the fifth volume of the Brehon Laws, now considerably over- 
due, is eagerly awaited. The Irish Texts Society has added 
a third volume to its series in the poems of Egan O'Rahilly, 
admirably edited by the Eev. P. S. Dineen, from whom, I hear, 
we may soon expect an edition of the poetry of Owen Eoe 
'Sullivan. 

The Gaelic League has also started an Irish Text Series, 
beginning with a volume of " Keating 's Poems," edited by 
Rev. J. C. McErlean, which I hope they will soon follow up 
with collections of the works of other bards. 

From Mr. John McNeill we are soon, I hear, to have an 
edition of the so-called "Duanaire Finn," a collection of 
Ossianic poems. 

Since Professor Zimmer redirected attention to the im- 
portant part played by the Norse invaders in the history, 



756 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

language and literature of Ireland, contributions to our 
knowledge of this period have come from various quarters. I 
refer to the study of Irish-Norse relations, by Professor 
Sophus Bugge, Dr. Craigie, of Oxford, and Miss Faraday, 
and may be allowed to mention that Dr. Alexander Bugge has 
come to Dublin to further work this field at the record office, 
and in the Royal Irish Academy, where he is sure to find 
much unpublished material. It gives me particular pleasure 
to announce that a pupil of mine, Richard 'Donovan, a 
son of the late Dr. John 'Donovan, is going to supplement 
his father's edition of the ''Annals of the Four Masters" by 
a much-needed Index Rerum. 

Mr. Gwynne has boldly tackled the difficult "Dinsenchas'* 
poems, which he has chosen for his subject. From his father, 
Profesor Gwynne, we may expect an edition of the "Book of 
Armagh. ' ' 

Mr. Douglas Hyde has been the first since the days of 
O'Reilly to attempt a literary history of Ireland, and he 
continues his series of ursgeula of which the third part has 
lately appeared. Dr. Hogan has brought out a most useful 
Irish herbal under the title of ''Luibhleabhran," and is, I 
hear, engaged on an Irish Onomartican, or "Thesaurus of 
Place-names," which will be a great boon to students. 

In the United States, Celtic studies are beginning to take 
root. The Rev. Professor Henebry has begun printing and 
translating O'Donnell's "Life of St. Colum Cille." Pro- 
fessor Robinson, of Harvard, has collected the Early Irish 
sagas and poems, bearing on Chaucer's tale of the "Wife of 
Bath," which he will publish in the Grimm Library. The 
same scholar is engaged on an edition of the Middle-Irish 
versions of the "Sir Bevis of Hampton." 

Of all Celtic countries, Scotland, for some reason, con- 
tributes least to Celtic research. The valuable collection of 
Gaelic MSS. at the Advocate's Library still remains uncat- 
alogued and unpublished. 

If it were not for that indefatigable worker, Dr. Alexander 
Macbain, and the Gaelic Society of Inverness, very little 
progress would have to be recorded, and yet there is nowhere 
apparently so much general interest taken in all questions 
bearing on the early history of that country as in Scotland. 
Macbain 's ** Gaelic Etymological Dictionary" is already out 
of print, and a new improved and enlarged edition may be 



The Gaelic League 757 

expected; meanwhile, the only valuable contribution to our 
knowledge of the literature of Gaelic Scotland which has 
lately appeared is Mr. Carmichael 's ''Carmina Gadelica," a 
large collection of native folk-lore of the most varied and 
surprising interest, of which not only Celtic students, but 
Teutonic also will have to take account. Where there was so 
much, is sure to be much more, and it is to be hoped that 
these dying traditions will be rescued before it is too late. 

The smallest Celtic land, the Isle of Man, puts Scotland 
to shame by the activity of its scholars. To mention only the 
chief event of the year, Mr. A. W. Moore has brought out a 
comprehensive history of the island, from which it appears 
that the pre-Norse history of the island has not yet been 
worked out from Irish sources, which still contain a good deal 
of unpublished material on early events in that island. 

Mr. Kermore may, I hear, be soon expected to publish a 
revised and enlarged edition of his ''Manx Runic and Ogam 
Inscriptions." 

In Wales, the self-inflicted death of Charles Ashton, the 
literary policeman of Dinas Mawddwy, has been a severe blow 
to Welsh scholarship. His ''History of Welsh Literature'* 
and his edition of the works of lolo Goch remain as a re- 
markable monument to the erudition of a man who was 
entirely self-taught. 

Professor Lewis Jones, of Bangor, under the title of 
Canadian Cymru, has published an anthology of Welsh 
poetry of the last two centuries, from "Haw Morus" to 
' ' Ceiriog Hughes, ' ' while his colleague and namesake, Morris 
Jones, has produced a fine edition of Ellis Wynne's "Bardd 
Cwsg." Professor Anwyl, of Aberystwyth, has published the 
most scholarly "Grammar of Welsh," and continues his re- 
searches into the origin and structure of the Mabinogion. 
A society has been formed in Cardiff, under the name of 
Cymdeithas Lien Cymru, for the publication of the works of 
less-known poets. Two little volumes, daintily got up, have 
already appeared. Canon Silvan Evans, the veteran of the 
Welsh pholology, in spite of his eighty-five years, continues 
to work at his "Welsh-English Dictionary," of which we may 
soon expect a new installment. Professor Rhys, in co-opera- 
tion with Mr. Brynmor Jones, under the title of the "Welsh 
People," has brought out a volume full of the most varied 
information, but one regrets to find it in a paper by Morri 



758 Ieeland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Jones, on linguistic relations between the Welsh and certain 
North African peoples. Professor Ehys has also collected 
his scattered articles on Welsh folk-lore into two large vol- 
nmes. It is surprising to see how little folk-lore there is left 
in Wales. 

I am now at the end of my rapid sketch. Having given 
you, I hope, a picture of a remarkable display of activity all 
along the line, I should now like to point out that two great 
needs in Irish studies still remain unsupplied— a Dictionary 
and a Reader. There are, or were, rumors of a forthcoming 
dictionary from more than one side, but there seems no imme- 
diate prospect of their realization. 

Let me entreat those who have made lexicographical col- 
lections of whatever kind to follow my example, and publish 
them boldly, incomplete or incoherent as they may be. In 
lexicographical work nothing that adds the least to our knowl- 
edge can come amiss. 

It has been one of the curses of Celtic studies that so much 
valuable work of this kind has been lost, and has to be done 
over again by another generation, perhaps not so well 
equipped for the task. There are, e. g., to mention only one 
deplorable fact, at Maynooth, two huge folio volumes, the 
MSS. dictionary of 'Curry, inaccessible to almost all Irish 
students, which, if it had been printed, like 'Donovan's well- 
known supplement to O'Reilly, would have proved an incal- 
culable boon, and would have materially advanced our studies. 

The compilation of an Irish dictionary on the scale of the 
great standard dictionaries of other more fortunate languages 
is a task beyond the powers of this generation. That cannot 
be undertaken till the great bulk of Irish literature is avail- 
able in trustworthy edition. 

As regards the Reader, such a work might far more easily 
be undertaken now, and the benefit it would convey on the 
beginner would be very great. 

It should contain a well-chosen series of ancient and mod- 
ern texts in normalized spelling, so as not to deter the begin- 
ner by the infinite vagaries of the scribes, and it should be 
accompanied by a glossary. 

In Welsh, too, a publication of this kind would be most 
desirable. Nothing would so much popularize Celtic studies 
as the appearance of such books. Meanwhile the ''Gaelic 
Journal" and the "An Claidheamh Solius" might do much 



The Gaelic League 759 

by giving us still more modern texts from such collections as 
that at Maynooth, where on a cursory inspection, I was 
astonished to find volume after volume of the most excellent 
modern or comparatively modern prose, such as one of the 
'^Gesta Eomanorum," etc. 

I cannot conclude without casting a glance into the future. 
I am convinced that the present is but the beginning of an 
era of still greater activity in all departments of Celtic 
studies. Everything points to that. 

The more reliable textbooks and handbooks will be pub- 
lished, the greater will be the numbers of those taking up 
Celtic studies. As the fields of other more ancient and more 
recognized studies become exhausted, there will come a rush 
of students on to the fresh, and often, almost virgin soil of 
Celtic research, to study the great Celtic civilization at its 
source, to collect the last lingering remnants of a mighty 
tradition. 

Again and again it has happened during recent years that 
workers in other subjects have in their researches finally been 
led on to Celtic soil, where lie the roots of much mediaeval lore, 
of many institutions, of important phases of thought. 

And another thing, too, I will foretell. The rediscovery, 
as it were, of ancient Celtic literature will not only arouse 
abroad a greater interest in the Celtic nations, but it will lead 
to beneficial results among those nations themselves. All that 
is needed is to overcome indifference and ignorance. 

I have never yet known the Irishnjan or Irishwoman who 
were not in heart of hearts proud of their beautiful native 
land, and loved it with a far-brought love, a love out of the 
storied past; who were not proud of their men and women; 
who did not think of them as every patriot ought the best 
and noblest and fairest in the world. From that love will 
spring a wider and a greater Ireland, than an Ireland of party 
and faction. I do not despair that even Professor MahafEy, 
whose brilliant wit and ready satire too often give the lie to 
his true Irish heart, will be a contented citizen of that greater 
Ireland, and that a time will come when he and men like him 
will be proud of that precious inheritance of their nation, their 
great and noble literature, which is the envy of other nations, 
and in which, with its history, its poetry and all its associa- 
tions, a basis of union will be found for all Irishmen of what- 
ever race and creed. 



760 



Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 



It has been so in Scotland, where Walter Scott, and Burns ; 
aye, and the much-abused Macpherson, and the songs of the 
Highlands, the ballads of the Lowlands, coupled with the love 
of the native land, have been more potent to bring about a 
reconciliation and a union of hearts and hands than the heavy 
and multiplex and blundering apparatus of politics. And to 
a similar union, based on an ideal and lasting sentiment, we 
may confidently look forward for Ireland, who shall then once 
more take that proud and honored place among the nations 
of the world which is hers by right, and of which blind, cruel 
and unreasoning fate has so long deprived her. 




Composed fromlBook of Kells. 



CHAPTER VI. 

lEISH MANUSCRIPT LITERATURE. 

By T. O'Neil Russell. 

The fact of the general interest awakened by Irish, or, to 
speak more correctly, Gaelic literature is a hopeful sign for 
the Irish race at home and abroad. This interest has been 
steadily growing for more than forty years, and owes its 
origin in a great measure to the talent, research and unceas- 
ing labors of Dr. John 'Donovan. 

Before his time nothing, or next to nothing, was known 
about the contents of the massive tomes and musty, leathern- 
looking rolls of manuscript that were thrust into out-of-the- 
way nooks in the libraries of Trinity College, the Eoyal Irish 
Academy and many other places. The writer remembers the 
feelings of surprise, mingled with a good deal of incredulity, 
with which the first of Mr. 'Donovan's translations was 
received by the public. 

It appeared in the Dublin Penny Journal, and was sup- 
posed, with very good show of probability, to have been the 
composition of Cormac, Chief King of Ireland in the third 
century. It was entitled ''Advice to a Prince." It is one 
of the most interesting and curious pieces that has yet been 
translated from Gaelic ; indeed, it is so excellent, and shows 
such a high morality and culture on the part of its author, 
that a very large proportion of the readers of the Dublin 
Penny Journal unhesitatingly set it down as a forgery, and 
classed it in the same category as MacPher son's *'Ossian." 
There were so few then alive who knew anything about Old 
Gaelic that it was next to impossible to prove whether 'Don- 
ovan's translation was correct or not, although he gave the 
name of the manuscript from which it was taken. 'Donovan, 
however, was not a man to be discouraged by the remarks 
of prejudiced or ignorant people. He went on making trans- 
lations, and although the masses took little or no interest in 
them, some of the learned were impressed with their beauty. 

Never had any kind of literature to make its way to public 
esteem through such difficulties as the books translated by 

761 



762 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

O 'Donovan. Very few Irishmen took any interest in them, 
and it is safe to say that no Englishman had any regard for 
them whatever. 

The reviews and criticisms of the Athenaeum and the 
Saturday Review, and such of the English press as deigned to 
notice them, were the most curious compounds of ignorance, 
bad taste and prejudice possible to conceive. Here were 
translations from the oldest class of manuscripts in Europe, 
and one would suppose that great cosmopolitan literary Lon- 
don would have gone half wild with delight over the quaint- 
ness, originality, and unmistakable antiquity of such curious 
and beautiful pieces as the ''Book of Rights," the ** Battle 
of Magh Rath," the ''Circuit of Ireland," by Muirceartarch 
MacNeill; the "Topographical Poems of O'Heerin and 
O'Dugan," "St. Patrick's Hymn at Tara," etc. 

Had translations of equal merit been made from any other 
language under heaven, had the treasures of any other litera- 
ture that had lain hidden for a thousand years, suddenly been 
poured on the London literary world, as 'Donovan's transla- 
tions were, the whole tribe of scribblers would have set to work 
to write reviews and treatises on them, and the translator 
would have made a pile of money. But the fact was that the 
translations fell dead from the press ; the Irish public did not 
buy them, and English reviewers and litterateurs sneered at 
them and 'Donovan made no money except the small pittance 
allowed him by the Royal Irish Academy. 

By degrees, however, slowly but surely, a widespread and 
general interest began to be awakened about Irish literature. 
In one quarter it began to be thoroughly appreciated, and 
that was in Germany. Very soon the learned of that country, 
free, as a class, from political prejudices as they undoubtedly 
are, turned their attention to the study of the ancient lan- 
guage and lore of Erin. Zeuss was first amongst the Germans 
to go seriously to work to study Celtic. Stimulated by the 
great achievements of 'Donovan, and having plenty of Irish 
manuscripts of great antiquity in the libraries of his own and 
adjoining countries, he, after thirteen years' hard work, pro- 
duced the celebrated "Grammatica Celtica," which treats of 
the kindred languages to Gaelic as well as of Gaelic itself; 
that is, it contains a grammar of Welsh, Breton and the dead 
dialect of Cornwall. 

The example shown by Zeuss was followed by many in 



The Gaelic League 763 

Germany, and a host of Celtic scholars sprung up in that 
country; amongst whom the names of Bopp, Ebel, Grimm, 
Zimmer, Windisch, and Zimmerman are best known. France, 
too, contributed some excellent Celtic savants, foremost among 
them we may mention the name of H. D'Arbois de Jubain- 
ville, editor of the Revue Celtique. 

With the single exception of Dr. Atkinson, professor of 
Sanskrit in Trinity College, Dublin, England has not up to 
this time produced a single Celtic scholar. Dr. Atkinson's 
training in Celtic is from Ireland. The only English author 
that has taken any notice whatever of Gaelic literature is 
Matthew Arnold. His noble work, ''Celtic Literature," 
stamps him not only as a scholar, but the most un-English 
of Englishmen, inasmuch as he is not prejudiced, and is 
ready to acknowledge merit wherever he finds it, even though 
it be in the ancient literature of Ireland. 

There are, however, within the borders of England at the 
present time some of the best, if not the best, Celtic scholars 
in the world. Foremost we will mention Dr. Whitley Stokes, 
of London; Dr. Standish Hayes 'Grady and Professor Kuno 
Meyer. Dr. Meyer is connected with the University College, 
Liverpool, and although a German, is a most distinguished 
Celtic scholar. 

Amidst all the gloom and discouragement which sur- 
rounded the early labors of 'Donovan and his fellow worker 
'Curry, in spite of the lamentable fact that even their own 
countrymen did not fully appreciate their labors, there is one 
thing connected with the revival of Irish literature for which 
Irishmen have just reason to feel proud. There is one insti- 
tution in Ireland without which the early literature of our 
country would probably be as little known to-day as it was a 
hundred years ago. That institution is the Eoyal Irish 
Academy, Dublin. 

It was mostly from its slender funds that 'Donovan was 
remunerated for his gigantic labors; it is there most of the 
priceless treasures of the art and literature of Ireland's 
ancient days of freedom and culture have found a safe and 
honored resting-place. It is the most hallowed spot on Irish 
soil. Its Museum of Antiquities is the most unique, the most 
interesting, and, for its size, the most valuable in the world. 

There are to be seen treasures in gold ornamentatioai, of 
workmanship infinitely superior to anything at the present 



764 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

day. 'Among them the Tara Brooch, the ' ' Chalice of Ardagh ' ' 
and the ^' Cross of Cong" are the most remarkable. It is 
there also that the most noted and ancient manuscripts are 
deposited. ' ' The Book of Armagh, ' ' the ' ' Book of Leinster, ' ' 
the ''Book of Lecain," the ''Speckled Book," the "Book of 
Fermoy," and many other priceless tomes are all in the keep- 
ing of this institution. Too great praise cannot be given the 
members of the Royal Irish Academy for their genuine zeal, 
patriotism and liberality. 

The institution was founded by Protestant gentlemen over 
a hundred years ago, but it never in the slightest degree par- 
took of a sectarian character. Catholic members were will- 
ingly received, and now fully half its members are Catholics. 
It was, in fact, solely through the means of the Irish Academy 
that the treasures of ancient Irish literature were brought 
under the notice of the world. 'Donovan might have been 
a genius, but if there were no institution to take advantage of 
his genius, or set it to work, and, above all, to pay for it, 
Celtic manuscripts would probably be as little known or cared 
about to-day as they were when the institution was founded. 

The Royal Irish Academy has performed one most im- 
portant work, and that is the copying or making fac-similes 
of some of the most ancient and valuable Irish manuscripts. 
The "Leabhar na h-Uidhre," or "Book of the Dun Cow," 
the "Book of Ballymote," the "Book of Leinster," the 
"Leabhar Breac" and the "Book of Lecain"— some of these 
tomes contain more matter than the Bible. Several hundred 
copies of each have been printed off, and they are so faithful 
copies that even the mistakes of the originals are reproduced. 
The work of copying is one that requires great skill, time and 
patience. 

The importance of this work can hardly be overestimated, 
as the slightest accident from fire might at any time cause 
the loss of these treasures of ancient Irish learning. 

When we consider the quantity of ancient Irish manu- 
scripts that yet exists, and the immense number that must 
have been destroyed by Danes, Normans and Cromwellians, 
we feel astonished at the literary activity of ancient Ireland. 
It is safe to say that there are more untranslated Irish manu- 
scripts of the Middle Ages yet extant than there are in all 
the other European languages put together. 

There are over one thousand volumes of untranslated 



The Gaelic League 765 

matter in Dublin, some of them as old as the eighth and ninth 
centuries; there are many hundred volumes in the different 
libraries in England; the quantity on the Continent is very 
large, the exact number is not known; Irish manuscripts are 
known to exist in many of the old towns of France, Germany, 
the Low Countries, Italy, and perhaps also Spain; in fact, 
in most places on the Continent where monastic institutions 
existed in the middle ages. 

It is a great pity that some steps are not taken to collect, 
and, if possible, to purchase those venerable relics of the past. 
The British Grovernment is in duty bound to do it. If Ireland 
were mistress of her own destinies there is no doubt but it 
would be done. 

England has undertaken the government of Ireland, has 
put herself in the place of Ireland, and is in duty bound to 
do her best to preserve the ancient records and literature of 
the country she has conquered. Besides, the treasures of the 
past are in a great measure the property of humanity. Eng- 
lishmen, Frenchmen and Germans are alike interested in pre- 
serving the antiquities of Greece, Egypt and Assyria, and 
why should not the antiquities of Ireland be equally precious? 

If Saxon manuscripts were known to exist in the same 
abundance in Continental libraries as Irish manuscripts, 
England would spend hundreds of thousands of pounds in 
purchasing them. Private enterprise can never accomplish 
such a work, for the simple reason that the expense would 
be too great. The Eoyal Irish Academy would undoubtedly 
have taken some steps ere now to purchase as many as pos- 
sible of the Irish manuscripts on the Continent if its funds 
were large enough. It is to be hoped that something will soon 
be done in this matter, either by public or private enter- 
prise. 

Unfortunate as Ireland has been politically, she has been 
still more unfortunate in respect to her literature and lan- 
guage. The wars of the seventeenth century were more de- 
structive to her literature than to her liberty, for fire and 
sword are powerless against the one, but potent against the 
other. The spirit of liberty may laugh at the incendiary sol- 
dier, but the books he bums are lost forever. 

The early and mediaeval literature of Ireland sustained 
more losses through wars and burnings than the literature of 
any other nation in the world. What the Danes spared the 



766 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Normans destroyed, and what escaped tliem were burned by 
the Cromwellians. Even the eigbteentb century, compara- 
tively peaceful as it was for Ireland, was the time when as 
cruel a blow as ever was dealt fell on Celtic literature, and 
was dealt by James Macpberson and bis coadjutors. 

The publication of the so-called poems of Ossian, in spite 
of the temporary excitement they created, invested everything 
Celtic with a stigma of forgery and falsity. The people who 
had been deceived by Macpherson determined never to be 
deceived again by anything Celtic. 

Here we have the principal cause of the indifference and 
coldness with which 'Donovan's translations were received 
by the public. But Macpherson and his coadjutors were 
guilty of a still greater crime than forgery of historical char- 
acters and distortion of historical facts; they went further 
than any literary charlatans ever went before, for they forged 
a language. 

It is now well known that the language of modern Scotch 
Gaelic first appeared about the middle of the last century; 
previous to that time whatever books or manuscripts existed 
in Gaelic in Scotland, whether written in old Gaelic characters 
or in Roman, agreed with the language of Ireland in or- 
thography and syntax. It may be admitted that the High- 
landers had some peculiarities of pronunciation that differed 
from those of Ireland, but the written language was the same 
as ours. 

This is abundantly proved by ''Car swell's Liturgy," and 
many other existing books of the sixteenth, seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. To this day the language of the poorest 
and least educated Highlander is more like Irish than the 
jargon into which the Bible has been translated for him. It 
can be easily understood how much Gaelic literature has suf- 
fered by having the Scotch cut themselves off from the Irish 
in the manner described. Had the Gaelic language been 
preserved in its purity in Scotland the probability is that 
Celtic would be to-day a well known and fashionable speech, 
for the literary activity of Scotland would have brought it 
prominently under the notice of the world. Scotland could 
have done this better than Ireland, for Ireland was, all 
through the eighteenth century, in a state of political and 
religious turmoil that rendered literary effort of any kind 
impossible. 



The Gaelic League 767 

Another cause of the ignorance and coldness about Irish 
literature is the unfortunate fact that the editors and writers 
of Irish newspapers are, and have been as a class, utterly 
ignorant about the ancient language and literature of their 
country. They would find room for the worthless utterance 
of some demagogue, when they would grudge a short para- 
graph on one of 'Donovan's or 'Curry's wonderful trans- 
lations. I can think of but one man connected with a paper 
or periodical in Ireland until within ten or twelve years that 
published even one column of original matter in the language 
of our country. This is enough to make any one with the 
smallest pretensions to patriotism blush alike for his country 
and countrymen. 

Whether the present widespread desire amongst the Irish 
at home and abroad to become familiar with their native lan- 
guage and literature will continue or not is hard to say, but 
if it lasts only a few years longer it will have accomplished 
enough to insure the language a lengthened existence, for in a 
short time there will be enough people able to read it to 
insure a remunerative sale for a current literature in Irish. 
Five years from now, with the language taught in the national 
schools, there will be such a general knowledge of it that we 
may see newspapers and periodicals printed entirely in Gaelic 
instead of partially as at present. 



SECTION VIII. 



GREAT SPEECHES ON GREAT 
OCCASIONS 

SPARKLING GEMS FROM THE JEWEL HOUSE 
OF IRELAND'S UNRIVALED ORATORY 



ROBERT EMMET, THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, A. M. SULLIVAN, 

CHARLES STEWART PARNELL, THOMAS SEXTON, REV. 

DR. CHARLES O'REILLY, W. BOURKE COCKRAN, 

JOHN F. FINERTY. 



769 



GREAT SPEECHES ON GREAT 
OCCASIONS 



emmet's speech in the dock SEPTEMBER 19th, 1803. 

*'My Lords: — I am asked what have I to say why sentence of 
death should not be pronounced on me, according to law. I have 
nothing to say that can alter your predetermination, nor that it will 
become me to say, with any view to the mitigation of that sentence 
which you are to pronounce, and by which I must abide. But I have 
that to say which interests me more than life, and which you have la- 
bored to destroy. I have much to say why my reputation should be res- 
cued from the load of false accusation and calumny which has been cast 
upon it. I do not imagine that, seated where you are, your minds 
can be so free from prejudice as to receive the least impression from 
what I am going to utter. I have no hopes that I can anchor my 
character in the breast of a court constituted and trammelled as 
this is. I only wish, and that is the utmost that I expect, that your 
lordships may suffer it to float down your memories untainted by 
the foul breath of prejudice, until it finds some more hospitable 
harbor to shelter it from the storms by which it is at present buffeted. 
Were I only to suffer death, after being adjudged guilty by your tribu- 
nal, I should bow in silence and meet the fate that awaits me without a 
murmur; but the sentence of the law which delivers my body to the 
executioner will, through the ministry of the law, labor for its own 
vindication, to consign my character to obloquy; for there must be 
guilt somewhere, whether in the sentence of the court or in the 
catastrophe, time must determine. A man in my situation has not 
only to encounter the difficulties of fortune, and the force of power 
over minds which it has corrupted or subjugated, but the difficulties 
of established prejudice. The man dies, but his memory lives. 
That mine may not perish, that it may live in the respect of my 
countrymen, I seize upon this opportunity to vindicate myself from 
some of the charges alleged against me. When my spirit shall be 
wafted to a more friendly port — when my shade shall have joined the 
bands of those martyred heroes who have shed their blood on the 
scaffold and in the field in defense of their country, and of virtue — 
this my hope — I wish that my memory and name may animate those 
who survive me, while I look down with complacency on the destruc- 
tion of that perfidious government which upholds its domination by 
blasphemy of the Most High — which displays its power over man, 
as over the beasts of the forest — ^which sets man upon his brother, 
and lifts his hand in the name of God, against the throat of his 
fellow who believes or doubts a little more or a little less than the 
government standard — a government which is steeled to barbarity by 
the cries of the orphans, and the tears of the widows it has made." 

(At this point Mr, Emmett was interrupted by Lord Norbury, 

771 



77^ Ireland's Crown of Thorns and IIoses 

who said ''That the mean and wicked enthusiasts who felt as he did 
were not equal to the accomplishment of their wild designs.") 

"I appeal to the immaculate God — I swear by the throne of Heav- 
en before which I must shortly appear — by the blood of the murdered 
patriots who have gone before me — that my conduct has been, through 
all this peril, and through all my purposes, governed only by the 
conviction which I have uttered, and by no other view than that 
of the emancipation of my country from the superinhuman oppres- 
sion under which she has so long and too patiently travailed; and 
I confidently hope that, wild and chimerical as it may appear, there 
is still union and strength in Ireland to accomplish this noblest of 
enterprises. Of this I speak with the confidence of intimate knowl- 
edge and with the consolation that appertains to that confidence. 
Think not, my lords, I say this for the petty gratification of giving 
you a transitory uneasiness, A man who never yet raised his voice 
to assert a lie will not hazard his character with posterity by assert- 
ing a falsehood on a subject so important to his country, and on an 
occasion like this. Yes, my lords, a man who does not wish to have 
his epitaph written until his country is liberated will not leave 
a weapon in the power of envy, or a pretence to impeach the probity 
which he means to preserve, even in the grave to which tyranny con- 
signs him." 

(Here he was again interrupted by the court.) 

"Again, I say, that what I have spoken was not intended for your 
lordship, whose situation I commiserate rather than envy — my ex- 
pressions were for my countrymen. If there is a true Irishman 
present, let my last words cheer him in the hour of his affliction. ' ' 

(Here he was again interrupted. Lord Norbury said he did not 
sit there to hear treason.) 

"I have always understood it to be the duty of a judge, when a 
prisoner has been convicted, to pronounce the sentence of the law. 
I have also understood that judges sometimes think it their duty 
to hear with patience and to speak with humanity, to exhort the vic- 
tim of the laws, and to offer with tender benignity their opinions 
of the motives by which he was actuated in the crime of which he was 
adjudged guilty. That a judge has thought it his duty so to have 
done I have no doubt ; but where is the boasted freedom of your in- 
stitutions — where is the vaunted impartiality, clemency, and mild- 
ness of your courts of justice, if an unfortunate prisoner, whom 
your policy and not justice is about to deliver into the hands of the 
executioner, is not suffered to explain his motives sincerely and truly, 
and to vindicate the principles by which he was actuated? My 
lords, it may be part of the system of angry justice to bow a man's 
mind by humiliation to the proposed ignominy of the scaffold; but 
worse to me than the purposed shame of the scaffold's terrors would 
be the shame of such foul and unfounded imputations as have been 
made against me in this court. You, my lord, are a judge; I am 
the supposed culprit. I am a man; you are a man, also. By a rev- 
olution of power we might change places, though we never could 
change characters. If I stand at the bar of this court and dare 
not vindicate my character, what a farce is your justice! If I 
stand at this bar, and dare not vindicate my character, how dare 
you calumniate it? Does the sentence of death, which 
your unhallowed policy inflicts on my body, condemn 
my tongue to silence and my reputation to reproach? Your 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 773 

executioners may abridge the period of my existence; but while I 
exist I shall not forbear to vindicate my character and motives from 
your aspersions; and as a man, to whom fame is dearer than lite, i 
will make the last use of that life in doing justice to that reputation 
which is to live after me, and which is the only legacy I can leave 
to those I honor and love, and for whom I am proud to perish. As 
men my lords, we must appear on the great day at one common 
tribunal; and it will then remain for the Searcher of all hearts to 
show a collective universe, who was engaged in the most virtuous 
actions, or swayed by the purest motives— my country's oppressors 
or"— (Here he was interrupted and told of the sentence ot the 

law.) . -, , , 1 • -1 £ 

"My lords, will a dying man be denied the legal privilege o± ex- 
culpating himself in the eyes of the community from an undeserved 
reproach, thrown upon him during his trial, by charging him witn 
ambition and attempting to cast away for a paltry consideration the 
liberties of his country? Why did your lordships insult me? Or, 
rather, why insult justice in demanding of me why sentence of death 
should not be pronounced against me? I know, my lords, that form 
prescribes that you should ask the question. The form also pre- 
sents the right of answering. This, no doubt, may be dispensed with, 
and so might the whole ceremony of the trial, since sentence was 
already pronounced at the Castle before the jury was impanelled. 
Your lordships are but the priests of the oracle, and I insist on the 

whole of the forms." -, . -, , • x i \ 

(Here Mr. Emmet paused, and the court desired him to proceed.) 
"I am charged with being an emissary of France. An emissary 
of France! And for what end? It is alleged that I wished to sell 
the independence of my country; and for what end? Was this the 
object of my ambition? And is this the mode by which a tribunal 
of justice reconciles contradiction? No; I am no emissary; and my 
ambition was to hold a place among the deliverers of my country 
not in power, nor in profit, but in the glory of the achievement, bell 
my country's independence to France! and for what? Was it a 
change of masters? No, but for my ambition. Oh, my country, 
was it personal ambition that could influence me? Had it been 
the soul of my actions, could I not, by my education and fortune, by 
the rank and consideration of my family, have placed myself amongst 
the proudest of your oppressors? My country was my idol lo it 
I sacrificed every selfish, every endearing sentiment; and tor it i 
now offer myself, God! No, my lords, I acted as an Irishman 
determined on delivering my country from the yoke of a foreign and 
unrelenting tyranny, and the more galling yoke of a domestic tac- 
tion which is its joint partner and perpetrator m the patricide, trom 
the ignominy existing with an exterior of splendor and a consciousness 
of depravity. It was the wish of my heart to extricate my country 
from this doubly-riveted despotism— I wished to place her indepen- 
dence beyond the reach of any power on earth. I wished to exalt 
her to that proud station in the world. Connection with France was 
indeed intended, but only as far as mutual interest would sanction 
or require Were the French to assume any authority inconsistent 
with the purest independence, it would be the signal for their destruc- 
tion We sought their aid— and we sought it as we had assurance 
we should obtain it— as auxiliaries in war, allies in peace. Were the 
French to come afS invaders or enemies, uninvited by the wishes ot 



774 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the people, I should oppose them to the utmost of my strength. Yes ! 
my countrymen, I should advise you to meet them upon the beach with 
a sword in one hand and a torch in the other. I would meet them 
with all the destructive fury of war. I would animate my country- 
men to immolate them in their boats, before they had contaminated 
the soil of my country. If they succeeded in landing, and if forced 
to retire before superior discipline, I would dispute every inch of 
ground, burn every blade of grass, and the last entrenchment of lib- 
erty should be my grave. What I could not do myself, if I should 
fall, I should leave as a last charge to my countrymen to accomplish; 
because I should feel conscious that life, any more than death, is un- 
profitable when a foreign nation holds my country in subjection. 
But it was not as an enemy that the succors of France were to land. 
I looked, indeed, for the assistance of France ; but I wished to prove 
to France and to the world that Irishmen deserved to be assisted — 
that they were indignant at slavery; I wished to procure for my 
country the guarantee which Washington procured for America — 
to procure an aid which, by its example, would be as important as its 
valor; disciplined, gallant, pregnant with science and experience; 
that of a people who would perceive the good and polish the rough 
points of our character. They would come to us as strangers and 
leave us as friends, after sharing our perils and elevating our des- 
tiny. These were my objects; not to receive new taskmasters, but 
to expel old tyrants. It was for these ends I sought aid from France, 
because France, as an enemy, could not be more implacable than the 
enemy already in the bosom of my country." 

(Here he was interrupted by the court.) 

*'I have been charged with that importance in the emancipation 
of my country as to be considered the keystone of the combination 
of Irishmen; or, as your lordship expressed it, 'the life and blood 
of the conspiracy.' You do me honor over much; you have given 
to the subaltern all the credit of a superior. There are men engaged 
in this conspiracy who are not only superior to me, but even to your 
own conceptions of yourself, my lord — men before the splendor of 
whose genius and virtues I should bow with respectful deference, and 
who would think themselves disgraced by shaking your blood-stained 
hand." 

(Here he was interrupted.) 

"What, my lord, shall you tell me, on the passage to the scaf- 
fold, which that tryranny (of which you are only the intermediary 
executioner) has erected for my murder, that I am accountable for 
all the blood that has and will be shed in this struggle of the op- 
pressed against the oppressor — shall you tell me this, and must I 
be so very a slave as not to repel it? I do not fear to approach the 
Omnipotent Judge to answer for the conduct of my whole life ; and 
am I to be appalled and falsified by a mere remnant of mortality 
here? By you, too, although if it were possible to collect all the in- 
nocent blood that you have shed in your unhallowed ministry in one 
great reservoir your lordship might swim in it." 

(Here the judge interfered.) 

"Let no man dare, when I am dead, to charge me with dishonor; 
let no man attaint my memory by believing that I could have engaged 
in any cause but that of my country's liberty and independence; or 
that I could have become the pliant minion of power in the oppres- 
sion and misery of my country. The proclamation of the Provisional 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 775 

Government speaks for my views ; no inference can be tortured from 
it to countenance barbarity or debasement at home, or subjection, 
humiliation, or treachery from abroad. I would not have submitted 
to a foreign oppressor, for the same reason that I would resist the 
domestic tyrant. In the dignity of freedom I would have 
fought upon the threshold of my country, and its enemy should 
enter only by passing over my lifeless corpse. And am I, who lived 
but for my country, and who have subjected myself to the dangers 
of the jealous and watchful oppressor, and the bondage of the grave, 
only to give my countrymen their rights, and my country her inde- 
pendence, am I to be loaded with calumny and not suffered to resent 
it? No; God forbid!" 

(Here Lord Norbury told Mr. Emmet that his sentiments and 
language disgraced his family and his education, but more particu- 
larly his father. Dr. Emmet, who was a man, if alive, that would 
not countenance such opinions. To which Mr. Emmet replied) : 

"If the spirits of the illustrious dead participate in the concerns 
and cares of those who were dear to them in this transitory life, oh, 
ever dear and venerated shade of my departed father, look down with 
scrutiny upon the conduct of your suffering son, and see if I have, 
even for a moment deviated from those principles of morality and 
patriotism which it was your care to instill into my youthful mind, 
and for which I am now about to offer my life. My lords, you are 
impatient for the sacrifice. The blood which you seek is not con- 
gealed by the artificial terrors which surround your victim — it cir- 
culates warmly and unruffled through the channels which God cre- 
ated for noble purposes, but which you are now bent upon destroying 
for purposes so grievous that they cry to heaven. Be yet patient ! I 
have but a few more words to say — I am going to my cold and silent 
grave — my lamp of life is nearly extinguished — my race is run — 
the grave opens to receive me, and I sink in its bosom. I have but 
one request to ask at my departure from this world, it is — THE 
CHARITY OF ITS SILENCE. Let no man write my epitaph, 
for as no man who knows my motives dares now vindicate them, let 
not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me rest in 
obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed and my mem- 
ory in oblivion, until other times and other men can do justice to 
my character. When my country takes her place among the nations 
of the earth, then and 7iot till then, let my epitaph be written. I 
have done." 



THB FAMOUS SWORD SPEECH OF THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, DELIV- 
ERED IN CONCILIATION HAIjL, DUBLIN, THE LORD MAYOR 
'' OF THE CITY IN THE CHAIR. 

''My Lord — I am not ungrateful to the man who struck the fet- 
ters off my limbs while I was yet a child, and by whose influence 
my father, the first Catholic that did so for two hundred years, sat 
for the last two years in the civic chair of my native city. But, 
my lord, the same God who gave to that great man the power to 
strike down one odious ascendancy in this country, and who enabled 
bim to institute in this land the laws of religious equality — the same 



776 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

God gave to me a mind that is my own, a mind that I was to use and 
not to surrender. 

**The soldier is proof against an argument — but he is not proof 
against a bullet. The man that will listen to reason — let him be 
reasoned with. But it is the weaponed arm of the patriot that can 
alone prevail against battalioned despotism. 

''Then, my lord, I do not condemn the use of arms as immoral, 
nor do I conceive it profane to say that the King of Heaven — ^the 
Lord of Hosts! the God of Battles — bestows His benediction upon 
those who unsheath the sword in the hour of a nation's peril. From 
that evening on which in the valley of Bethulia he nerved the arm 
of the Jewish girl to smite the drunken tyrant in his tent, down to 
this, our day, in which he has blessed the insurgent chivalry of the 
Belgian priest. His Almighty hand has ever been stretched forth 
from his throne of Light to consecrate the flag of freedom — to bless 
the patriot sword ! Be it in the defence, or be it in the assertion of 
a people's liberty, I hail the sword as a sacred weapon; and if, my 
lord, it had sometimes taken the shape of the serpent and reddened 
the shroud of the oppressor with too deep a dye, like the annointed rod 
of the High Priest, it has at other times, and as often, blossomed into 
celestial flowers to deck the freeman's brow. 

* ' Abhor the sword — stigmatize the sword ? No, my lord, for in the 
passes of the Tyrol it cut to pieces the banner of the Bavarian, and, 
through those cragged passes, struck a path to fame for the peasant 
insurrectionists of InsprUck ! Abhor the sword — stigmatize the sword ? 
No, my lord, for at its blow a giant nation started from the waters 
of the Atlantic, and by its redeeming magic and in the quivering 
of its crimsoned light the crippled colony sprang into the attitude of 
a proud Republic — prosperous, limitless, and invincible! Abhor the 
sword — stigmatize the sword? No, my lord, for it swept the Dutch 
marauders out of the fine old towns of Belgium — scourged them back 
to their own phlegmatic swamps — and knocked their flag and sceptre, 
their laws and bayonets, into the sluggish waters of the Scheldt. 

"My lord, I learned that it was the right of a nation to govern 
itself, not in this hall, but on the ramparts of Antwerp; I learned 
the first article of a nation's creed upon those ramparts, where free- 
dom was justly estimated, and where the possession of the precious 
gift was purchased by the effusion of generous blood. My lord, I 
honor the Belgians for their courage and their daring, and I will 
not stigmatize the means by which they obtained a citizen-king, a 
chamber of deputies." 



A. M. SULLIVAN ON THE MANCHESTER MARTYRS. 

Arraigned in the Dock in Green Street Court House, Dublin, 
February, 1868, for defending the motives of the "Martyred Three" 
in his newspaper, the late A. M. Sullivan spoke as follows : 

"Gentlemen — The present prosecution arises directly out of what 
is known as the Manchester tragedy. The Solicitor-General gave you 
his version, his fanciful sketch of that said affair; but it will be my 
duty to give you the true facts, which differ considerably from the 
Crown story. The Solicitor-General began with telling us about 
'the broad summer's sun of the 18th of September.* (Laughter.) 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 777 

Gentlemen, it seems very clear that the summer goes far into the 
year for those who enjoy the sweets of office; nay, I am sure it is 
summer 'all the year round' with the Solicitor-General, while the 
present ministry remain in. A goodly golden harvest he and his col- 
leagues are making in this summer of prosecutions; and they seem 
very well inclined to get up enough of them. (Laughter) Well, 
gentlemen, I am not complaining of that, but I will tell you who com- 
plain loudly — the outs, with whom it is midwinter, while the So- 
licitor-General and his friends are enjoying this summer. (Renewed 
laughter.) Well, gentlemen, some time last September two promi- 
nent leaders of the Fenian movement — alleged to be so, at least — 
named Kelly and Deasey, were arrested in Manchester. In Man- 
chester there is a considerable Irish population, and amongst them 
it was known those men had sympathizers. They were brought up 
at the police court — and now, gentlemen, pray, attentively mark this. 
The Irish executive that morning telegraphed to the Manchester au- 
thorities a strong warning of an attempted rescue. The Manchester 
police had full notice — how did they treat the timely warning sent 
from Dublin, a warning which, if heeded, would have averted all 
this sad and terrible business which followed upon that day? Gen- 
tlemen, the Manchester police authorities scoffed at the warning. 
They derided it as a 'Hirish' alarm. What! The idea of low 
'Hirish' hodmen or laborers rescuing prisoners from them, the val- 
iant and the brave! Why, gentlemen, the Seth Bromleys of the 
'force' in Manchester waxed hilarious and derisive over the idea. 
They would not even ask a truncheon to put to flight even a thousand 
of those despised 'Hirish'; and so, despite specific warning from Dub- 
lin, the van containing the two Fenian leaders, guarded by 
eleven police officers, set out from the police office to the gaol. Now, 
gentlemen, I charge on the stolid vain-gloriousness in the first in- 
stance, and the contemptible pusillanimity in the second instance, of 
the Manchester police — ^the valiant Seth Bromleys — all that followed. 
On the skirts of the city the van was attacked by some eighteen Irish 
youths having three revolvers — three revolvers, gentlemen, and no 
more — amongst them. The valor of the Manchester eleven vanished 
at the sight of those three revolvers — some of them, it seems, loaded 
with blank cartridges. The Seth Bromleys took to their heels. They 
abandoned the van. Now, gentlemen, do not understand me to call 
those policemen cowards. It is hard to blame an unarmed man who 
runs away from a pointed revolver, which, whether loaded or un- 
loaded, is a powerful persuasion to — depart. But I do say that I 
believe in my soul that if that had occurred here in Dublin, eleven i 
men of our metropolitan police would have taken those three re- 
volvers or perished in the attempt. (Applause.) Oh, if eleven Irish \ 
policemen had run away like that from a few poor English lads with ' 
barely three revolvers, how the press of England would yell in fierce 
denunciation ! Why, they would trample to scorn the name of Irish- 
men — " (Applause in the court, which the officials vainly tried to 
silence.) 

Mr. Justice Fitzgerald — *'If these interruptions continue the par- 
ties so offending must be removed." 

Mr. Sullivan — ' ' I am sorry, my lord, for the interruption ; though 
not sorry the people should indorse my estimate of the police. Well, 
gentlemen, the van was abandoned by its valiant guard, but there re- 
mained inside one brave and faithful fellow, Brett, by name. I am 



^s. 



778 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

now giving you the facts as I in my conscience and soul believe they 
occurred — and as millions of my countrymen — aye, and thousands 
of Englishmen, too — solemnly believe them to have occurred, though 
they differ in one item widely from the Crown version. Brett re- 
fused to give up the key of the van, which he held, and the attack- 
ing party commenced various endeavors to break it open. At length 
one of them called out to fire a pistol into the lock, and thus burst 
it open. The unfortunate Brett at that moment was looking through 
the keyhole, endeavoring to get a view of the inexplicable scene out- 
side, when he received the bullet and fell dead. Gentlemen, that may 
be true, or it may be the mistaken version. But even suppose your 
view differs sincerely from mine, will you, can you, hold that I, thus 
conscientiously persuaded, sympathize with murder, because I sym- 
pahize with men hanged for that which I contend was accident, and 
not murder? That is exactly the issue in this case. Well, the res- 
cued Fenian leaders got away, and then, when all was over — ^when 
the danger was passed — ^valor tremendous returned to the fleet-of- 
foot Manchester police. Oh, but they wreaked their vengeance that 
night on the houses of the poor Irish in Manchester! By razzia 
they soon filled the jails with our poor countrymen, seized on suspi- 
cion. And then broke forth all over England that shout of anger 
and passion which none of us will ever forget. The national pride 
had been sorely wounded; the national power had been openly de- 
fied; the national fury was aroused. On all sides resounded the 
hoarse shout for vengeance, swift and strong. Then was seen a 
sight, the most shameful of its kind that this century has exhibited — 
a sight at thought of which Englishmen will yet hang their heads 
for shame, and which the English historian will chronicle with red- 
dened cheek — those poor and humble Irish youths led into the Man- 
chester dock in chains! In chains! For what were those chains 
put on untried prisoners? Gentlemen, it was at this point exactly 
that Irish sympathy came to the side of those prisoners. It was 
when we saw them thus used and saw that, innocent or guilty, they 
would be immolated — sacrificed to glut the passion of the hour — that 
our feelings rose high and strong in their behalf. Even in Eng- 
land there were men — noble-hearted Englishmen, for England is 
never without such men — who saw that if tried in the midst of this 
national frenzy those victims would be sacrificed; and accordingly 
efforts were made for a postponement of the trial. But the roar 
of passion carried its way. Not even till the ordinary assizes would 
the trial be postponed. A special commission was sped to do the 
work while Manchester jurors were in a white heat of panic, indig- 
nation, and fury. Then came the trial, which was just what might 
be expected. Witnesses swore ahead without compunction, and ju- 
rors believed them without hesitation. Five men arraigned together 
as principals — Allen, Larkin, O'Brien, Shore, and Maguire — were 
found guilty, and, the judge concurring in the verdict, were sen- 
tenced to death. Five men — not three men, gentlemen — five men in 
one verdict, not five separate verdicts. Five men by the same evi- 
dence and the same jury in the same verdict. Was that a just ver- 
dict? The case of the crown here to-day is that it was — ^that it is 
'sedition' to impeach that verdict. . . . The very evening those 
men were sentenced thirty newspaper reporters sent the Home Sec- 
retary a petition protesting that — the evidence of the witnesses and 
the verdict of the jury notwithstanding — ^there was at least one in-' 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 779 

nocent man thus marked for execution. The g«J%^^^f ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
the reporters were right, and the jurors wrong. They Pardoned 
Maguire as an innocent man-that same Maguire whose legal con- 
Sn is here put in as evidence that he and four others were truly 
murderers, to sympathize with whom is to commit sedition-nay, to 
glorify the cause of murder. ^ 

But now arose in redoubled fury the savage cry for blood. In 
vain good men, noble and humane men in England tried to save the 
national honor by breasting this horrible ^ntburst of passion They 
were overborne. Petitioners for mercy were mobbed and hooted m 
the streets. We saw all this-we saw all this; and think you it did 
not 5nk into our hearts? Fancy if you can our feelings when we 
heard that yet another man out of five was ^^P^^^^^-^^' ^^J/,%^^ 
American, gentlemen-an American, not an Irishman-but that the 
thTee Irishmen, Allen, Larkin and O'Brien, were to die-were to 
be put to death on a verdict and on evidence that would ^ot hang 
a dog in England! We refused to the last to credit it; and thus 
LreduTous, deemed it idle to make any eitort to ^ave heir lives 
But it was true; it was deadly true. And then, gentlemen, the 
doomed Three appeared in a new character. Then they rose into 
the Sgnity and heroism of martyrs. The" manner m which they 
bore themselves through the dreadful ordeal ennobled them forever. 
It was then we all learned to love and revere them aspatriots and 
Christians. Yes, in that hour they told us they ^vere innocent, but 
were ready to die; and we believed them. We believe them still, 
lye do we' Thej^ did not go to meet their God with falsehood on 
their liDS On that night before their execution, oh, what a scene! 
What a^ picture did England present at the foot of the Manchester 
scaffold' The brutal populace thronged thither m tens of thousands. 
They danced, they sang, they blasphemed, they chorused 'Rule Brit- 
tannia' and 'God Save the Queen' by way of f^lf^%^^-^^^^,l 
the men whose death agonies they had come to see! Then shouts 
and brutal cries disturbed the doomed victims mside the pnson as 
^n heir cells they prepared in prayer and meditation to meet their 
creatoi and their God Twice the police had to remove the crowd 
?rom around that wing of the prison, so that our poor brothers might 
in peace go through their preparations for eternity undisturbed by 
Ihe yells of the multitude outside. Oh, gentlemen gentlemen-that 
scene ! that scene in the grey, cold morning, when those ^nocent men 
were led out to die-to die an ignominious death before that wolfi h 
mob with blood on fire-with bursting hearts-we read the dreadful 
Sory here in Ireland. We knew that these men would never have 
been thus sacrificed had not their offence been political and had it 
not been that in their own way they represented the old struggle of 
?he IrTsh race. All this we felt, yet we were silent till we heard the 
press that had hounded those men to death falsely declaring that 
our si ence was acquiescence in the deed that eof^g^ed them to 
mrirderers' graves. Of this I have personal knowledge that, here 
rSubUn at least, nothing was done or intended until the Evening 
Mail declared that popular feeling, which had ample time to de- 
clare itself, if it felt otherwise, quite recognized the justice of the 
execution. Then we resolved to make answer Then Ireland madx' 
answer For what monarch, the loftiest in the world, would such 
deronstrations be made, the voluntary offerings of a people s grief? 
ThTnk you it was 'sympathy for murder' called us forth or caused 



780 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the priests of the Catholic Church to drape their churches? It i?? 
a libel to utter the base charge. No, no. "With the acts of those 
men at that rescue we had naught to say. Of their innocence of 
murder we were convinced. Their patriotic feelings, their religious 
devotion, we saw proved in the noble, edifying manner of their death. 
We believed them to have been unjustly sacrificed in a moment of 
national passion; and we resolved to rescue their memory from the 
foul stains of their maligners, and make it a proud one forever with 
Irishmen. Sympathy with murder indeed! What I am about to 
say will be believed, for I think I have shown no fear of consequences 
in standing by my acts and principles. I say for myself, and for 
the priests and people of Ireland who are affected by this case, that 
sooner would we burn our right hands to cinders than to express, 
directly or indirectly, sympathy with murder; and that our sym- 
pathy for Allen, Larkin and O'Brien is based upon the conviction 
that' they were innocent of any such crime. 

"Now, gentlemen, judge ye me on this whole case, for I have 
done. I have spoken at great length, but I plead not merely for 
my own cause, but the cause of my country. For myself I care 
little. I stand before you here with the manacles, I might say, on 
my hands. Already a prison cell awaits me in Kilmainham. My 
doom, in any event, is sealed. Already a conviction has been ob- 
tained against me for my opinions. Sedition, in a rightly ordered 
community, is indeed a crime. But who is it that challenges me? 
Who is it that demands my loyalty ? Who is it that calls out to me, 
'Oh, ingrate son, where is the filial affection, the respect, the obe- 
dience, the support, that is my due? Unnatural, seditious and re- 
bellious child, a dungeon shall punish your crime!' I look in the 
face of my accuser, who thus holds me to the duty of a son. I turn 
to see if there I can recognize the features of that mother whom in- 
deed I love, my own dear Ireland. I look into that accusing face, and 
there I see a scowl, and not a smile. I miss the soft, fond voice, the 
tender clasp, the loving word. I look upon the hands reached out 
to grasp me — to punish me ; and lo, great stains, blood-red, upon those 
hands; and my sad heart tells me it is the blood of my widowed 
mother, Ireland. Then I answer to my accusers, 'You have no claim 
on me — on my love, my duty, my allegiance. You are not my mother. 
You sit indeed in the place where she should reign. You wear the 
regal garments torn from her limbs, while she now sits in the dust, 
uncrowned and overthrown, and bleeding from many a wound; But 
my heart is with her still. Her claim alone is recognized by me. 
She still commands my love, my duty, my allegiance; and whatever 
the penalty may be, be it prison chains, be it exile or death, to her 
I will be true. ' But, gentlemen of the jury, what is that Irish nation 
to which my allegiance turns'? Do I thereby mean a party, or a 
class, or a creed? Do I mean only those who think and feel as I 
do on public questions? Oh, no! It is the whole people of this 
land — the nobles, the peasants, the clergy, the merchants, the gentry, 
the traders, the professions — ^the Catholic, the Protestant, the dis- 
senter. Yes ; I am loyal to all that a good and patriotic citizen should 
be loyal to; I am ready, not merely to obey, but to support with 
heartfelt allegiance, the constitution of my own country — ^the Queen 
as Queen of Ireland, and the free Parliament of Ireland once more 
constituted in our national senate-house in College Green. And re- 
constituted once more it will be. In that hour the laws will again 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 781 

be reconciled with national feeling and popular reverence. In that 
hour there will be no more disesteem, or hatred, or contempt for the 
laws; for, howsoever a people may dislike and resent laws imposed 
upon them against their will by a subjugating power, no nation dis- 
esteems the laws of its own making. That day, that blessed day, of 
peace and reconciliation, and joy, and liberty, I hope to see. And 
when it comes, as come it will, in that hour it will be remembered for 
me, that I stood here to face the trying ordeal, ready to suffer for 
my country — walking with bared feet over red-hot plowshares, like 
the victims of old. Yes; in that day it will be remembered for me, 
though a prison awaits me now, that I was one of those journalists 
of the people who, through constant sacrifice and self-immolation, 
fought the battle of the people, and won every vestige of liberty re- 
maining in the land." 



DEFIANCE TO GLADSTONE. 

SPEECH delivered BY CHARLES STEWART PARNELL AT "WEXFORD, OCTO- 
BER 9th, 1881. 

Fellow Countrymen: — 

You have gained something by your exertions during the last 
twelve months, but I am here to-day to tell you that you have gained 
but a fraction of that to which you are entitled. And the Irish- 
man who thinks that he can throw away his arms, just as Grattan 
disbanded the volunteers in 1783, will find to his sorrow and destruc- 
tion, when too late, that he has placed himself in the power of the 
perfidious and cruel and relentless English enemy. (Then, turning 
to Mr. Gladstone's speech, he continued) : 

It is a good sign that the masquerading knight-errant, this pre- 
tending champion of the rights of every other nation except those 
of the Irish nation, should be obliged to throw off the mask to-day 
and stand revealed as the man who, by his own utterances, is pre- 
pared to carry fire and sword into your homesteads, unless you hum- 
bly abase yourselves before him and before the landlords of the 
country. But I have forgotten. I said that he maligned everybody. 
Oh, no. He has a good word for one or two people. He says the 
late Isaac Butt was a most estimable man and a true patriot. When 
we in Ireland were following Isaac Butt into the lobbies, endeavor- 
ing to obtain the very Act which William Ewart Gladstone, having 
stolen the idea from Isaac Butt, passed last session, William Ewart 
Gladstone and his ex-Government of^cials were following Sir Staf- 
ford Northcote and Benjamin Disraeli into the other lobby. No 
man in Ireland is great until he is dead and unable to do anything 
more for his country. 

In the opinion of an English statesman, no man is good in Ireland 
until he is dead and buried and unable to strike a blow for Ireland. 
Perhaps the day may come when I may get a good word from Eng- 
lish statesmen as being a moderate man, after I am dead and buried. 
When people talk of ''public plunder" they should ask themselves 
who were the first plunderers in Ireland. The land of Ireland has 
been confiscated three times over by the men whose descendants Mr. 
Gladstone is supporting in the enjoyment of the fruits of their plun- 
der hj his bayonets and his buckshot. And when we are spoken to 



782 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

about plunder we are entitled to ask who were the first and biggest 
plunderers. This doctrine of public plunder is only a question of 
degree. 

In one last despairing wail Mr. Gladstone says, "And the Gov- 
ernment is expected to preserve peace with no moral force behind 
it." The Government has no moral force behind them in Ireland; 
the whole Irish people are against them. They have to depend for 
their support upon a self-interested and a very small minority of 
the people of this country, and therefore they have no moral force 
behind them, and Mr. Gladstone in those few short words admits that 
English government has failed in Ireland. 

He admits the contention that Grattan and the volunteers of 
1782 fought for; he admits the contention that the men of '98 died 
for; he admits the contention that O'Connell argued for; he ad- 
mits the contention that the men of '48 staked their all for; he ad- 
mits that the men of '67, after a long period of depression and 
apparent death of national life in Ireland, cheerfully faced the dun- 
geons and horrors of penal servitude for; and he admits the con- 
tention that to-day you, in your overpowering multitudes, have es- 
tablished, and, please God, will bring to a successful issue — namely, 
that England's mission in Ireland has been a failure, and that Irish- 
men have established their right to govern Ireland by laws made for 
themselves on Irish soil. I say it is not in Mr. Gladstone's power 
to trample on the aspirations and rights of the Irish nation with no 
moral force behind him. . . . 

These are brave words that he uses, but it strikes me that they 
have a ring about them like the whistle of a schoolboy on his way 
home through a churchyard at night to keep up his courage. He 
would have you believe that he is not afraid of you because he has 
disarmed you, because he has attempted to disorganize you, because 
he knows that the Irish nation is to-day disarmed as far as physical 
weapons go. But he does not hold this kind of language with the 
Boers. At the beginning of this session he said something of this 
kind with regard to the Boers. He said that he was going to put 
them down, and as soon as he had discovered that they were able to 
shoot straighter than his own soldiers he allowed these few men to 
put him and his Government down. 

I trust as the result of this great movement we shall see that, just 
as Gladstone by the Act of 1881 has eaten all his own words, has 
departed from all his formerly declared principles, now we shall 
see that these brave words of the English Prime Minister will be 
scattered like chaff before the united and advancing determination of 
the Irish people to regain for themselves their lost land and their 
legislative independence. 



STATE OF IRELAND IN 1882 — LAND LEAGUE DAYS — SPEECH DELIVERED IN 

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, ENGLAND, FEBRUARY 14tH, 1882, 

BY HONORABLE THOMAS SEXTON, M. P. 

^ Mr. Sexton, resuming the adjourned debate on the Queen's speech, 
said he arose to support the amendment which his honorable friend, 
the member for the County of Longford, brought before the house. 
That amendment had been described as a long indictment of the 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 7*83 

Government. It was a long indictment, but it did not contain a 
single superfluous word. Every clause in it expressed a crime against 
public right, and every crime stood verified, not by reasonable sus- 
picion, but by absolute and widespread public knowledge. This de- 
bate, while it was ostensibly occupied with large questions of public 
policy, had resolved itself into a deliberate, sustained and venomous 
attack upon his honorable friend, the member for the City of Cork 
(Mr. Parnell). He was an absent man. They had heard the pa- 
thetic account of the struggle between the infant Hercules and the 
serpent ; but so far as the conflict in this debate had lain between the 
Treasury Bench and the honorable member for the City of Cork, it 
had lain between a dozen freemen and one man, whom before the con- 
flict began they had carefully manacled and gagged. (Cheers) 
There were two classes of speech in this debate which invited brief 
attention. In one class they who were concerned with the Land 
League had cause of complaint for being sought to be made morally 
responsible for the most serious and the most atrocious of crimes; 
and he experienced anew upon this occasion what he had noted more 
than once before, that the most solemn and the most exalted refer- 
ence to public morality came from the gentlemen who were talking 
out of their briefs. (Cheers.) The Solicitor-General for Ireland, 
fresh from the breezy and moral atmosphere of the four courts 
(laughter), fresh from the elevating experience of the Derry elec- 
tion, had taken it upon himself to lecture honorable members of the 
house on the subject of public morality (laughter and cheers). He 
spoke of the height of soul and the elevation of idea, but he (Mr. 
Sexton) would not delay the house to inquire how far height of soul 
and elevation of idea were evidenced at the Derry election; nor would 
he delay to inquire how far they ought to be lectured upon the ethics of 
rent by a gentleman who, if he might borrow a metaphor from an 
humble but a useful class of trade, appeared before the public at 
the Derry election as the "cheap jack" of the Liberal Party. 

To another class of speeches he had also briefly to allude. They 
were those of the advocate and spokesmen of the landlord party in 
the house. The position of the landlord party upon this discussion 
was one extremely simple. They resented any attempts, the slight- 
est, the most partial interference, with their historic right and priv- 
ilege of arbitrarily plundering their tenants. (Cheers.) 

That was precisely the state of the case. Their class found an 
adequate spokesman in the person of the honorable member for Lei- 
trim County. That honorable and gallant member proceeded to in- 
terest the house in the beautiful spectacle afforded by 3,000 land- 
lords in Dublin, who were quite unanimous in the question to dip 
their hands into somebody else's pockets. (Cries of "No.") Well, 
yes, either the pockets of the tenants or of the State. It matters 
nothing to the landlords, so long as it was a pocket and so long as it 
had something in it. (Cheers.) 

The Honorable Gentleman was horrified by the theory that a 
live and thrive policy was to prevail in reference to the Irish ten- 
ants. They could well understand the opposition of the honorable 
and gallant member to such a motion, because they had good reason 
to believe that upon his property in the County Leitrim every form 
of ingenuous despotism and every kind of mean exaction prevailed. 
He (Mr. Sexton) happened to know that the charitably disposed in 



784 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

other parts of Ireland were sending clothes to cover the naked bodies 
of his evicted tenantry. 

That debate had resolved itself in a great measure, as he had 
said, into an attack upon the honorable member for Cork (Mr. Par- 
nell) — and he might say that attacks upon Mr. Parnell were synono- 
mous with attacks upon the Land League. They had been told that 
the Land League v»^as an organization, the object of which was plun- 
der, and that the means by which it proposed to attain its object 
was by outrage and intimidation; and he held that some right hon- 
orable and honorable gentlemen had even said by murder. It was 
difficult for a man of any sensibility or of any moral sense to rise 
in that house and undertake the task of defending an organization on 
behalf of which the fiercest prejudices of a people ignorant of Ire- 
land had been excited by the most ingenuous statesman and the 
greatest master of oratorical art. (Cheers.) He undertook to say 
that he could speedily prove to the house that their description of 
the Land League had been violently and wantonly removed from 
truth. What, as a general rule, was the description of the class 
of Irish landlords? It was a familiar fact that they were planted 
upon the soil of Ireland by confiscation, and it was a fact equally 
familiar that in the centuries which had since elapsed they had never 
in any sense allied themselves to the people; that they had never 
ceased to be an alien class, never interested themselves in the wel- 
fare of their tenants, and had merely performed the functions of 
rent-warners, and stood to-day as a class as alien to the interests 
of Ireland as they were the first day that confiscation planted them 
there. (Cheers.) They were as a body an embarrassed, a deeply 
involved body of men; and even in the ease of some of them who 
may have been unwilling to act harshly, they had been by a compul- 
sion derived from the evil days of their forefathers forced to be so. 
He had recently become acquainted with some facts that would ex- 
plain his meaning to the house. For the eight years succeeding the 
passing of the Encumbered Estates Court Act the area of Irish land 
sold in the courts was three million five hundred thousand acres, 
the rental of which was one million and a quarter pounds sterling, 
whilst the scheduled incumbrances upon them amounted to thirty- 
six million pounds sterling. Thus it would be seen that the land- 
lords of these estates, with a rental of one million and a quarter, were 
liable for the interest on incumbrances which amounted to two mil- 
lions per annum. Any thoughtful man would see that the existence 
of the tenants of these men must have been a lifelong agony. 

One of the advantages which was expected from the Landed 
Estates Court was that it would do away with the rollicking, spend- 
thrift landlord and replace him by a man of more commercial prin- 
ciples ; but instead of that it had added a new curse, for he was suc- 
ceeded by the "Ebenezer Scrooge," who had made his money over 
the counter, and who went into the business of landlord with a 
gaming spirit, as a commercial speculation, and determined to ex- 
tort the last penny the soil could afford. To what did the Land 
League owe its origin? The House was aware that for three years 
before 1879 the harvests of Ireland had been bad beyond the memory 
of man. The bulk of the tenants were driven, in an effort to pay 
their back rents, to borrow large sums of money. In this extreme 
crisis the landlords showed no disposition to give help to the people. 
^Evictions were carried out and notices to quit — they were familiar 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 785 

with the phrase — fell like snowflakes on the land. The landlord class, 
and they alone, abstained from any works of mercy, and seemed to 
avail themselves of the loans offered by the State, and those who 
did get any money had the cynicism and shamelessness not to spend 
it for the purposes for which it was obtained. What were the ob- 
jects and what are the objects of the Land League? He said, what 
are they? because the Land League, although proclaimed as an illegal 
assembly, had not morally ceased to exist (Irish cheers), and would 
one day resume its active existence. Its objects were two-fold and 
were plainly stated upon its card of membership. The first was to 
put down rackrenting, eviction and landlord oppression. The Prime 
Minister (Mr. Gladstone) professed to have attained that object by 
the Land Act. He (Mr. Sexton) was one of those who believed that 
the Land Act would not carry out the profession. 

The second object of the Land League was to enable the tiller of 
the soil to become, on fair terms, the owner of his holding. They 
had that styled plunder, rapine, revolution; and he should confess 
that he was not only amused, but bewildered, when he heard states- 
men of experience, who must be aware of the exact cause and prog- 
ress of agrarian reform in every country, express themselves in these 
terms concerning propositions which were not only feasible, but 
had recently actually been carried out in practice in that country, 
in Europe, even in Prussia, which was the most peaceful, the most 
successful and the most powerful on the continent. The time 
would come, and it was not far distant, when the Government would 
recognize the necessity of carrying out the Land League's object, and 
if a statesman was not found on the other side of the house to do 
it, he certainly would be found on that; for landlords, who were 
not so dull as they were obstinate, have discovered that the no-rent 
manifesto means a great deal and that the only hopeful prospect 
for them is not to be found in propositions for fixing fair rents, but 
in fulfillment of the objects of the Land League, which proposed to 
sever the landlord from the soil by the adoption of equitable terms 
of purchase. The objects of the Land League remained absolutely 
the same in every title as they were at first. An effort had been 
made to identify the Land League with outrage. It did not require 
much knowledge of history to know that when any men became trou- 
blesome to a strong Government, when they had set themselves to 
the remedying of abuses involving strongly established vested in- 
terests, they must expect to be maligned and to be traduced; to have 
their every action misconstrued, and to have their every word coupled 
with accusations of crime. It included the principal agriculturists 
in the home counties, and the principal professional men in the vari- 
ous towns in Ireland. Anybody looking over the roll of members 
of the Land League must recognize at once that the accusation which 
coupled these names with outrage and crime was farcical and wan- 
ton in the extreme. How were the local branches constituted? The 
parish priest was generally the president and his assistant clergy 
were associated with him in the work of the branch. The managing 
committees were composed, in the towns, of substantial merchants, 
and in the rural parishes of the most substantial and respectable 
farmers. He had personal knowledge of the members of the Land 
League in nearly every town in Ireland; and he assured the House, 
upon his honor, that what he stated was the exact truth. How 
could he think that men like the'^e would identify themselves with 



786 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

acts of outrage? And yet these were the very men (whom the right 
honorable gentlemen under an act which was intended for the midnight 
proAvlers and dissolute ruffians) arrested and east into the prisons 
of the country. They heard about boycotting. Boycotting was not 
an article of the Land League. It had existed in Ireland before 
now, and it existed in other countries also. It was not confined to 
any social grade. They understood it in Pall-Mall quite as well 
as in Mayo. There was an irresistible instinct in the human mind 
which drove men suffering under a sense of wrong to resort to that 
method of expressing their feelings. And among the rules of the 
Land League there were two on which it mainly depended for suc- 
cor. One was that no tenant should act singly on the question of 
rent, but that as the despotic power of the landlord had always 
sprung out of the fact that he took the tenants one by one and iso- 
lated them, the tenants, to paralyze this power, should band them- 
selves together and offer him what the needy times in which they 
lived enabled them to afford, and the other rule was that no tenant 
should take a farm from which another had been evicted. The pivot 
upon which the old system of tyranny turned, and on which the 
landlord power in Ireland rested, arose from the fierce and hungry 
competition for land which existed in the country. Whenever a farm 
fell vacant, no matter through what injustice, no matter what was 
the rent asked for it, some miserable tenant, driven to his wits ends 
for the means of living, was willing to come forward and in compe- 
tition with others of his class to offer, or at least to promise, what- 
ever rent the landlord asked. So long as that system was allowed 
to continue the landlords had the matter entirely in their own hands, 
while on the other side of the question there was a body of tenants, 
hard worked, without requital for their labor, miserable, oppressed, 
anxious, and discontented. The Land League established a rule 
based upon voluntary action. The tenants should not isolate them- 
selves on the question of rent, but should act together, and that no 
tenant should take a farm from which another had been unjustly 
evicted. It was in reference to the last rule that the device of boy- 
cotting came into force, because there were still men who would 
persist in acting against the interests of the tenants, and the tenants 
concurred, and he conceived and should always assert it that the 
tenants were perfectly justified. When any man acted against their 
interest and preferred his own selfish ends to the public good they 
were, he repeated, justified in socially discountenancing such a man; 
they were justified in refusing to hold intercourse with him, and, 
he would add, they were justified in refusing to work for him, be- 
cause, owing to his own selfish interest, he had proclaimed himself 
a public enemy. (Cheers.) 

If the people of Ireland had any rational method of expressing 
their wishes and preserving and guarding their interests by laws 
made by themselves, he should be very slow to say that any indi- 
vidual man in such a community should be subjected to anything 
which might be called persecution, but when the Irish people had 
no such right, when they were represented simply by a few men in 
that House who could be voted down at any moment, that when they 
had practically no effective existence within the bounds of the con- 
stitution, what were they to do? Were they to suffer sneaks and 
traitors of that kind to do what they pleased and to perpetuate a 
bad and tyrannical system which made every tenant the slave and 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 787 

serf of the landlord. No; the boycotting system, so long as it was 
confined to social discountenancing and to negative action, was a 
rule not only necessary for success of the movement, but thor- 
oughly justified on grounds of expediency and even morals. He 
claimed that on the authority of the Land League and by the sanc- 
tion of its prominent members boycotting could never be advanced 
an inch beyond the sphere of negative action, and the Land League 
had as little to do with boycotting, which included outrage and 
crime, as it had to do with the transit of Venus. The Land League 
never required for the success of its movement the universal obedi- 
ence of Ireland. There was plenty of room for dissensions. They 
should desire that there should be complete liberty of action, and if 
the honorable member for Galway looked through his speeches he 
would find strewn through them broadcast adjurations to the people 
to confine themselves to the wise and sufficient rules of the Land 
League. He did that because he desired to keep the movement 
within the recognized bounds of morals, and also because he felt the 
people would be injuring their own movement if they concerned 
themselves with any acts of outrage. It was essential for the suc- 
cess and progress of the movement that it should not be embarrassed 
by coercion, and every man in Ireland knew that a long succession 
of outrage would inevitably produce coercion, which would embarrass 
and hamper the movement. What would have happened in Ireland 
had there been no Land League? In the first place, if there had 
been no Land League there would have been no Land Act. (Irish 
cheers.) Did anybody doubt it? The honorable member for Gal- 
way seemed to be alone in his belief that there would. But why 
if there had been no Land League would there have been no Land 
Act? Firstly, because the Prime Minister in his address to the 
electors of the country two years ago outlined a great many sub- 
jects of legislation, and certainly the Irish land question was not 
one of these. In the first session of the present Parliament they in- 
troduced a small bill of respite, which might save a certain class 
of miserable Irish tenants for a time from the ruin and the doom 
of eviction. The right honorable gentleman passed it through that 
House after much ado and much compulsion, and, he might say, at 
the point of the bayonet presented at him by the Irish landlords. 
But when the bill was thrown out in another place the right honor- 
able gentleman meekly assented to that mode of dealing with it and 
neither he nor his government showed any intention of dealing with 
the Irish Land Question. They would not have dealt with it but 
for the existence of the Land League, and their position now, there- 
fore, was that, whereas up to the month of October last they looked 
on with complacency, if not with pleasure, at the agitation sustained 
by the Land League, an agitation necessary for the furtherance and 
completion of their legislative design. 

The moment their infant Hercules found his way into the world 
and that it became necessary to advance him in life, that moment 
their parental fondness asserted itself, and the Land League, which 
up to that was useful, was declared an enemy. Why? They had 
been told that it sometimes happened that the leading advocates of 
reform became the enemies of reform when it was granted. They 
were not the enemies of reform. They were willing and anxious 
to take out of the Land Act whatever benefit it contained, but their 
crime in the eyes of the Government was that they did not choose 



788 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

to bend the knee beiore Caesar. They did not accept the fruit of 
the Prime Minister's intellect as a final settlement of the Irish Land 
Question; they rather strove for that object declared in 1879 — the 
abolition of landlordism in Ireland, It was for that object they 
had been proclaimed, denounced, imprisoned and maligned in that 
House and in every part of the country. One entertaining feature 
in the speech of the right honorable gentleman was his references to 
America. America was a very favorite topic with the right hon- 
orable gentleman on the front of the Treasury benches when speak- 
ing about the Land League. They seemed to think it a strange and 
melancholy dispensation of fate that there should be another Ire- 
land in America. Because the governments which in succession had 
sat upon the Treasury benches had been participators in the crim- 
inal and wicked course by which the Irish landlords denied the 
Irish people a home in their own land. For many a year and many a 
generation the Irish people had seen the roof-tree overturned by the 
crowbar, and had been driven out on the roadside and away on the 
emigrant ship ; had been driven, penniless, wretched and desperate, to 
find a home and a living at the ends of the earth. They had gone 
forth with two feelings strong in their hearts: despairing love of 
their country, that they never again would see, and a fierce, eternal 
hate of the Government of England (Irish cheers), and the right 
honorable gentleman wonders that these men should have gone forth 
cursing the Irish landlords and the English Government, and that 
they, when a movement is on foot in Ireland to emancipate those 
whom they left behind to suffer from the system which exiled them 
should now send their contributions to Ireland. The right honorable 
gentleman said he must count upon the contributions of those exiles 
as a factor in the Irish movement. He must digest the venom of 
this gall though it should split him. The right honorable gentle- 
man held them responsible for the writings of the "Irish World." 
Well, the "Irish World" had undoubtedly sent some portion of 
the funds which had maintained the Irish Land League, but the 
"Irish World" was not the sole contributor to the funds. Contri- 
butions had poured in from various parts of America, and through 
various channels, and if the right honorable gentleman took suf- 
ficient interest in the Land League to observe the subscriptions for 
the past month he might have seen that they amounted to over 
twenty thousand pounds sterling, the largest amount ever yet sub- 
scribed in a single month; and he would have seen that by far the 
largest portion of that amount came from other sources than the 
"Irish World." He was not responsible, neither was the honorable 
member for Cork (Mr. Parnell), nor was even the Land League 
responsible for anything written by the "Irish World" or by any 
other American newspaper. They were responsible for the written 
and avowed principles of the Land League, and for nothing else. 
(Irish cheers.) The right honorable gentleman said that the Gov- 
ernment was driven into the course which they had adopted against 
the Irish Land League. They believed that otherwise the law would 
have become powerless, that industry would be impossible in Ire- 
land, and that liberty could not have existed. But in the latter 
part of his speech the right honorable gentleman answered himself 
because he said that the state of the relations between landlord and 
tenant in Ireland and the system of land tenure was such that quiet 
was impossible, that industry could not thrive, and that reform could 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 789 

not be attained. It was rather too soon for the right honorable gen- 
tleman to presume upon the adequacy of the infant Hercules to cope 
with the evils of such a system, especially when there was every rea- 
son to believe that this infant was in a galloping consumption. 

Some honorable members and the House were perhaps aware 
that on the arrest of his honorable friend, Mr. Dillon, in the month 
of April, he assumed the direction of the Land League, and as he 
was one of those who had been charged by the right honorable gentle- 
man with moral responsibility for crimes of various degrees of enor- 
mity, up even to the highest crime, he thought it might be well if 
he asked the House to attend for a few moments while he exhibited 
a few brief extracts from his published speeches to show the spirit 
in which the Land League was conducted during the final months of 
its career. Addressing the meeting of the League on the 17th of 
May, he said: ''Our marvelous success is strong from the fact that 
our principles have been sound, our statements accurate, our objects 
laudable and necessary for the public good, and that the means 
which we have put forward for the attainment of those objects were 
such as neither in justice nor in morality can be questioned." Again 
on the 31st of May, addressing the League, he said: "The Gov- 
ernment thought this organization sprung into existence because of 
an imperative necessity. They know it also asks nothing but what 
public necessity demands, and they know it proposes no means for 
the furtherance of its objects but the means that religion and con- 
science and morality approve of." Then referring to the arrest of 
his friend, John O'Connor, he said: "I will say that there was 
no man in the community who by nature and by training, by convic- 
tion and by the habit of his life, was so truly the friend of public 
peace or a more sincere champion of public order," and then went 
on to urge the people to be prudent and to express his confident re- 
liance on the constitutional character of the Land League, which 
they were determined to maintain to the end. 

On the 7th of June the Rev. Mortimer O'Connor, Parish Priest 
of Ballybunion, in the County of Kerry, occupied the chair at the 
meeting of the League, and said: "I established a branch of the 
Land League in my parish and became its president. Every house- 
holder in the parish, farmer, laborer, and tradesman, joined it, with 
the result that the most perfect tranquillity prevails and serious 
crime is altogether unknown. The restraining influence of the 
League was clearly visible. The same is the tone of the surround- 
ing parishes. It also applies in a greater or less extent to Munster. 
Should the Government suppress this organization, which walks open- 
ly in the light of day and hides nothing, the populace will be brought 
face to face with the armed forces of the realm." Perhaps that 
was what the right honorable gentleman desired. (Irish cheers.) 
"Without restraining or controlling influences in their struggle for 
existence, our suffering fellow-countrymen will be driven into a 
course which reason and religion alike condemns. On the same day 
he (Mr. Sexton) addressed the League and said: ''There was a 
duty now devolving every man who had any influence with the peo- 
ple to advise them to self-control, and that every man should feel 
it his sacred duty to act as if the safety and welfare of the people 
depended upon his labor. ' ' And yet he was told that the League was 
an organization which depended upon intimidation and outrage. On 



790 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the 14th of June Mr. John Ferguson, of Glasgow, occupied the chair 
at the meeting of the League, and he said : 

"They intended to work this movement out on the lines of con- 
stitutional agitation, by brain and tongue and what had never been 
tried in Ireland before, the powers which the trades union organ- 
ization gave them." It might be interesting to the house to know 
that at the end of July the League, on his motion, so strongly did 
it feel an interest in the preservation of social order in Ireland, 
passed a resolution adjuring the Catholics of Ulster not to inter- 
fere with the Orangemen on the occasion of the Orange anniversary. 
The Catholics of Ulster obeyed that request, and, as a result, for the 
first time in many years there was no breach of the peace in the 
Province of Ulster on that Orange anniversary. (Irish cheers.) He 
had not heard that the economy of public finance thus procured by 
the League had been acknowledged by the Government. On the 28th 
of June he said at a meeting of the League: "We will use every 
power within the boundary of admitted right, and we will use it 
firmly, in the assertion of our rights to live in our own native land. ' ' 
On the 5th of July he said : "I am proud to be able to claim for the 
Land League that, for the first time in the history of Ireland it has 
effectually interfered between these two sections of the people in the 
North of Ireland who had been kept apart by class prejudice and 
hate." On the same day he further said, alluding to an arrest that 
had been made: "He was not only a leader of the people in the 
South, but applies a thoughtful nature and powerful intellect to the 
repression of the passions of the people, which might lead to vio- 
lence and crime." The Government knew this well, and knew also 
that in his speeches he conveyed that the peaceful objects of the 
League were sufficient. The Government, feeling it was not within 
the scope of possibility to arrest my friend on a charge of inciting to 
outrage, availed themselves of a clause, the cowardly purpose of 
which was apparent to the Irish members while the bill was passing 
through the House, and arrested him for treasonable practices. The 
Government, he would now add, exercised that clause in a far more 
conspicuous cause. The Right Honorable, the Secretary of State 
for the Home Department, had immediately before this date made 
a speech in which he had endeavored, now by hints and shrugs, and 
anonymous placards, and bits out of newspapers, to associate the Land 
League with outrage, and this was his (Mr. Sexton's) reply. 

Sir William Vernon Harcourt has condemned the League. He 
has endeavored to give it a character which might prove most suita- 
ble for any purpose of expression which might be entertained by 
the Government. But how had he arrived at this conclusion? Had 
he judged the Land League by its articles and associations, or by its 
published rules? Had he judged it by the modes of action it had 
urged upon the people? Had he judged it by the speeches of its 
responsible members, or by the course of the movement, carried on 
as it had been in the face of Heaven and the world ? No. But he had 
gone about like a political scavenger, even to the ends of the earth, 
sweeping up here a sentence from one speech, and there a sentence 
from some newspaper. The most inconsiderable trifle was welcome 
if it could only contribute to increase the heap of rubbish. At the 
last meeting of the League, which he attended immediately before 
his illness, he defined in a few words what he conceived to be the 
foundation of these test cases, which had come into violent denunci- 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 791 

ation so much of late. He said: **The object of the League was 
to select those test cases, which, upon a view of the condition of the 
country and of the state of the various classes of tenants, will put the 
question before the Court in the form best calculated to serve the 
country, and to make known the real point and meaning of the 
act. At the last meeting of the League ever held, the meeting at 
which the manifesto was read, that was on the 19tli of October, the 
chair was taken by an ecclesiastic as eminent, as able and as virtu- 
ous as any of whom Ireland could boast, the Kev. James Cantwell, 
the Administrator of the Archdiocese of Cashel (cheers), and here 
they had the last words ever spoken on the platform of the League. 
He said: "I appeal and exhort each one of you, in conclusion, that 
you, yourselves, and so far as your influence goes over others, will 
abstain from using violence of any kind in the country. Our posi- 
tion is passive resistance. We are an unarmed people, and every 
man of sense who loves his country, who wishes to do nothing to 
bring disgrace and injury upon it, will do all he can to prevent vio- 
lent action." With these words the legal existence of the League 
terminated, and these words were spoken by an eminent and virtu- 
ous clergyman from the chair of the association, who had been de- 
nounced as the aider and abettor of outrage and intimidation. 
(Cheers.) These words he said, the last ever spoken in connection 
with the League, would remain upon its records to the latest day in 
defiance of calumny and in repulse of falsehood. The right honora- 
ble gentleman (Mr. Forster) told them that he should not have ar- 
rested the honorable member for Cork and the other members ofi 
Parliament if they had confined themselves to giving advice, but in 
the face of all that had been said, in the face of the published pro- 
ceedings of the League, in the face of its known, uncontradicted and 
uncontradictable, peaceful, passive policy, he had discovered in some 
mysterious manner that the member for Cork and the other members 
were responsible not only for advice, but for threats — not merely 
for threats, but for outrages. (Cheers.) He confessed he was ut- 
terly unable to follow the course of reasoning by which the right 
honorable gentleman arrived at his conclusion. He arrived at it, as 
he just said, by the method of the political scavenger. (Cheers.) 
Mr. Parnell said at the Tyrone election and the right honorable 
gentleman thought he made a great discovery, that the end and 
object of the Land League was the abolition of all rent and the mak- 
ing of the people the owners of the land. He asked what was there 
novel in that ? He might have found precisely the same thing in any 
speech of Mr. Parnell's delivered three years ago — and what was 
the impropriety of such a statement provided it was accompanied, as 
it was on the Land League platform, with the statement that the 
landlords should be severed from the soil by purchase on fair and 
equitable terms. (Cheers.) Mr. Parnell said in order to carry out 
the policy of the League it would be necessary to keep evicted farms 
vacant. The right honorable gentleman professed to believe that 
this involved some violence, some threats, illegal and secret action. 
Certainly not. The League from the beginning relied and had rea- 
son to rely upon the sufficiency of social opinion and the negative 
system of boycotting to keep these farms vacant. The right honor- 
able gentleman contested indignantly the notion that Mr. Parnell 
was arrested because of his reply to the Prime Minister. He (Mr. 
Sexton) could assure him that a widespread suspicion to that effect 



792 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

existed amongst the Irish people. Mr. Parnell replied to the Prime 
Minister on the 9th of October, and upon the 13th of October Mr. 
Parnell was arrested. There was just sufficient time for communi- 
cation between the two right honorable gentlemen (Messrs. Glad- 
stone and Forster), who sat side by side upon the Treasury Bench, 
and the prevailing opinion was that, if Mr. Parnell had not de- 
nounced the Prime Minister as a coercionist and a slanderer of the 
Irish people he might have enjoyed a somewhat longer term of lib- 
erty. If Mr. Parnell was not arrested upon the ground of his reply 
to the Prime Minister, why was it that they had no explanation of 
the arrest of Mr. Dillon? The honorable member pointed out the 
curious coincidence that only four days elapsed between Mr. Par- 
nell's reply to the Prime Minister's Leeds speech and his arrest, and 
four days between Mr. Dillon's speech spurning the praises of the 
Prime Minister and his arrest. He then referred to the extraordi- 
nary character of the warrants on which Mr, Parnell and himself 
had been arrested and showed that the warrant charging them with 
treasonable practises was an after thought of the Government. There 
was not a particle of evidence to maintain such a charge, and he 
had been waiting with curiosity an account of the reasons for such a 
formidable charge. Of course the right honorable gentleman endea- 
vored to eke out the contention that it was a treasonable practise 
to make an organized attempt to replace the Queen's courts by the 
courts of irresponsible leaders. So it was, but who made the at- 
tempt? Such an idea never entered into the mind of the Land 
League or any of its members. They wished to know as soon as 
possible precisely how much the Land Act meant as a measure of 
reform for the different classes of tenants in Ireland. 

During his stay in Ireland, from May until the 14th of October, 
until the right honorable gentleman, the Chief Secretary, arrested 
him he delivered upwards of one hundred speeches, which certainly 
afforded a considerable area for the selection of treasonable prac- 
tises if any such existed. But he found he was arrested in conse- 
quence of one sentence, in fact one line, in a single speech delivered 
in the open air at a moment of great excitement to an immense 
torchlight meeting. He said that "Dublin had broken loose from 
the Lion and the Unicorn, and had arrayed itself that evening un- 
der the banner of the Shamrock and the Harp. ' ' Certainly he never 
suspected that those animals were so sacred to the theory of the 
British Constitution. He might add with perfect accuracy that he 
was not thinking at the time of the Parliamentary relations which still 
existed between Great Britain and Ireland. It was rather a jocular 
allusion on his part to describe the torchlight procession as a happy 
departure from the old system. He was thinking of certain social 
objects of life in the city of Dublin, where the Lion and the Unicorn, 
being the sign-board of the Castle tradesman, were the types and 
emblem of a slavish and toadying section of the community. It was, 
however, a dear joke for him, for the right honorable gentleman 
pounced upon the phrase; the right honorable and learned gentle- 
man smelt treason in it, and as a consequence he was taken out of 
bed to Kilmainham, and put into a bed there and kept there for 
eighteen days, during which time he had an ample opportunity of 
experiencing the philanthropy which they were told distinguished 
the character of the right honorable gentleman by the leader of the 
Crovernment in language likely to earn for him an enduring fame. 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 793 

He believed that the administration of the Coercion Act will be an 
enduring monument for the right honorable gentleman, a monument 
from the top of which long after he had passed away the finger of 
history would point in contempt and unchanging execration. He 
should not pass the subject of the philanthropy of the right honor- 
able gentleman without saying that, although his condition of health 
when thrown into Kilmainham was such as might have well earned 
the consideration of even a sterner jailer than the right honorable 
gentleman, he took advantage to deny him the ordinary privileges 
accorded to prisoners under the Coercion Act, and was not allowed 
to see the visitors who called at the prison. He went one step fur- 
ther, and his being one of the names, he was proud to say, affixed to 
the ''No Rent" manifesto, he was condemned to solitary confine- 
ment. So under the regime of this philanthropist who spent his 
youth in the hovel and in the cabin, and who was spending his age 
in reversing the record of his youth, under this regime he suffered 
seven days' solitary confinement. In addition, he suffered pains and 
indignities which he would hesitate to describe to the House. He 
might mention, Jiowever, that on one occasion when the honorable 
member for Cork quitted his cell the honorable member for Roscom- 
mon, who was also there, was removed in consequence of the prison reg- 
ulation which was for enforcement against the lowest criminals in the 
land to prevent the committal of an offence which he could scarcely 
suggest to the House. These were the rules which under the regime 
of this philanthropist were applied to members of that House who 
were arrested on false and impudent fraudulent pretences. The 
right honorable gentleman who had so signalized and so unhappily 
distinguished himself was looked upon by the Irish people as a 
clumsy Cromwell. (Cheers and laughter.) Yes, a commonplace, 
clumsy Cromwell, a man who has all the spirit and all the will to 
tyrannize without the capacity or the genius of Cromwell, The main 
feature of the charge against the honorable member for Cork was 
his policy with reference to the Land Act, and he proposed to make 
it clear to the House what his policy really was, and how little it 
deserved the denunciations which had been levelled against it. He 
might say to all concerned that Mr. Parnell had ulterior objects. 
Every Irishman worthy of the name had ulterior objects, and if he 
had not he was not worthy to be called an Irishman. Mr. Parnell 
himself and other associates of the Land League regarded the land 
movement as only a stepping stone to that union of classes which 
would lead to the restoration of the rights of Ireland, but they de- 
nied that these ulterior objects involved any reproach. They con- 
sisted in the performance and consummation of a patriotic duty, and 
within the lines which had been laid down for them by the most emi- 
nent authorities they would fight for these ulterior objects to the 
end. Mr. Parnell expressed his belief that as long as the question 
of how much rent the tenant should pay remained in dispute it would 
prove a source of discontent and enmity between the classes of the 
country. Michael Davitt, he further declared, truly saw that the 
first step to be taken towards the recovery of their legislative inde- 
pendence was the abolition of landlordism, *'It was not," said Mr. 
Parnell, *'a question of novel or condemnable revolution; it was a 
question of regaining the rights of the Irish people and recovering 
their legislative independence." 

Mr. Parnell had been subjected to some fierce attacks, because it 



794 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

was said that he proposed to reduce the rental of Ireland from Sev- 
enteen Millions to Two or Three Millions. 

In one of his speeches he declared that in the difference between 
two or three millions and seventeen millions there was plenty of 
room for the reformer. The House would at once appreciate the 
expression, which showed that the honorable member for Cork did 
not bind himself to one figure, but pointed out that between the two 
practical legislation might find a fitting medium. On the question of 
the reduction of the rental of Ireland, Mr. Parnell said they should 
contend that in the legislative reform on the subject the presumption 
in respect of the period for which the tenant was allowed for past 
improvements should be changed to them from time immemorial, as 
it was he and his, and that the tenant should be deemed to be en- 
titled ancestors who created them, and not the landlord. On this 
point the Honorable member for Cork read the declaration of Mr. 
John Bright that nine-tenths of what was to be seen in Ireland in the 
shape of houses, fences and land cultivation had been put there by 
the tenants of Ireland, and not by the landlords. 

Mr. Parnell then went on to say that the Land Act, which Mr. 
Bright and his Government had passed, handed over about one-tenth 
of the improvements to the tenant and left the remaining nine-tenths 
to the landlord, and it would be their duty, he continued, to struggle 
until the British Legislature had sanctioned the restoration to the 
tenants of all the improvements to which, according to Mr. Bright, 
they were entitled. Two or three millions might be an extravagant 
estimate to which to reduce the rental of Ireland, but unquestionably, 
if it were extravagant the responsibility for such extravagance lay 
more at the door of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster than 
at the door of the Honorable member for Cork. But it was obvious 
that if the declaration of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 
were carried into legislative effect, the rental of Ireland would be 
more likely to be reduced to one million than to two or three. To 
illustrate the manner in which the rents had been raised upon the 
tenants' improvements, the Honorable member referred to the his- 
tory of the Farney estate, which was related by Mr. Townsend French, 
an eminent Irish land agent. In 1789 the rental of the estate was 
eight million pounds, and in 1843, seventy-four years afterwards, the 
rental of the estate was forty million pounds. What had been the 
cause of such an enormous difference in seventy-four years? It 
was evidently the improvements effected by the tenants. Taking 
the Healy clause in conjunction with the declaration of the Chancellor 
of the Duchy, he confessed he was amazed and bewildered to account 
not merely for the imprisonment of the honorable member for Cork, 
but for the charges of public immorality which had been made against 
him. The Healy clause, which received the assent of both Houses of 
Parliament, declared that no rents should be made payable for im- 
provements made or executed by the tenant or his predecessors, in title, 
unless they had been compensated for them by the landlord. Ac- 
cording to the reading of the lawyers, who were guided by the Act of 
1870, that should not extend farther back than thirty years. Why 
should it not? Why should it not apply to improvements made a 
hundred years ago, as well as improvements made yesterday? But 
the Honorable member for Cork did not see in the reduction of the 
rental of Ireland to two or three millions the final solution of the Land 
Question. The final solution he believed would be the abolition of 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 795 

landlordism by purchase, and he mentioned two or three millions 
as the sum to which the rental might be reduced, for the purpose of 
making clear the untenable position of the landlords of Ireland. If 
the rights of the landlords of Ireland were represented by such a 
small figure, it was the interest of every one of them to put an end 
to the landlord's interest in the soil of Ireland. The Honorable 
member read the declarations of Mr. Parnell upon the test cases, 
and said his object and the object of his followers in selecting those 
cases was a double one. Firstly, by selecting average cases, to ascer- 
tain at the earliest possible moment the amount of benefit which the 
act would confer upon the general body of the tenantry of Ireland. 
They felt that, if cases of rackrenting were first introduced to the 
court and first dealt with, large reductions would have been made 
which would lead to the creation of a false reputation for the 
Land Act, a reputation which would induce large numbers of tenants 
to rush into court and doom them to bitter disappointment. But 
what was it that had since come about? The tenants to the number 
of 70,000 rushed into court. The Government, instead of allowing the 
wisely-considered policy of Mr. Parnell to prevail, and to permit the 
court to deal, first, with the average rental of the country, silenced 
Mr. Parnell, extinguished the Land League, and left the court to 
deal with cases of rackrent, and defeated the hopes which had been 
generated among the tenants of Ireland. The tenants were thus 
induced to rush in tens of thousands into court, and to involve them- 
selves in legal costs which already had terribly aggravated their 
position. It had been said that the issue of the manifesto of no 
rent would become a dead letter. Since the 20th of October last 
it was within the power of the Government to have trusted to the 
merits of the act in which they had believed so much, and the ''no 
rent" policy was not intended to last until the last trumpet should 
sound, would have disappeared. The necessity for the manifesto had 
been abundantly proved by all that had occurred already in the fourth 
month of its operation. The Land Act had been proved to be a dis- 
mal failure. Even in the North of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, 
where the farmers had never been tainted with the fever of the 
Land League, the act was a failure. The Land Act was a failure in 
regard to its cost on the one hand, and a failure in regard to its 
effect on the tenants. Up to last Christmas the cost of administering 
the Land Act was ninety thousand pounds, and up to last Christmas 
the amount of the rents dealt with amounted to eighteen thousand 
pounds. What did the house think of the fact that every pound's 
worth of rent dealt with by the Land Courts involved an expense of 
fifty pounds to the State? If he were one of the economists on the 
Ministerialist side of the House, he should shudder to think that 
there had been a reduction of only four thousand pounds in rents 
at a cost of ninety thousand pounds to the State. The game was 
then hardly worth the candle. Already a few hundred cases had 
been dealt with by the Sub-Commissioners, and nearly one-half of 
their decisions had been appealed against in superior courts, and the 
miserable tenants, who were not in a position to pay arrears of rent, 
how were they to pass from the lower to the higher courts? If the 
plan of the Honorable member for Cork had been allowed to come 
into operation all this would have been rendered unnecessary. One 
case only under the Land Act had reached the final Court of Appeal, 
and he believed that the landlords had been encouraged, by the Lord 



.796 Ieeland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Mayor of London, the Prime Minister, and the First Commissioners 
of Works to pursue every decision to the final Court of Appeal 
before the practical effects of the act would be allowed to be felt 
at all. In the vast majority of cases that would be the result. There 
is already in the Land Courts a glut of 70,000 or 80,000 cases and 
there were fully 100,000 tenants who were in arrears of rent, and 
the First Commissioner of Works on the previous night thought that 
the landlords had the right to evict those tenants, although the Land 
Courts of the Government provided no remedy for this state of 
things. What was now happening? The landlords were at that 
moment — Sir H. Bruce — "instigated by the Government," Mr. Sex- 
ton — Yes; and supported by the First Commissioner of Works, and 
the infant Hercules, with its bodyguard of 60,000 troops, determined 
to evict those 100,000 poor tenants now in arrears. A more shameful 
thing never took place under any Government in Ireland. The 
landlords told the Government distinctly that they were now evad- 
ing the Land Act. They threatened the tenants that if they go into 
the Land Courts they will take them to Superior Courts, and there 
obtain writs against them for the arrears, and thus the Superior 
Court would enable the landlords to evict the tenants who happened 
to be in arrears. This was the fault of the Government, who left it 
optional with the landlord to say whether he should or not accept 
the arrears clause of the act, and in consequence of this choice being 
permitted under the act, 100,000 tenants were left naked and defence- 
less in the hands of the landlords. The landlords were threatening 
that those poor tenants would be evicted for the old arrears, and the 
effect of this was that the tenants were obliged to accept whatever 
terms were offered to them by the landlords. He assured the head of 
the Government that the Land Act was being evaded by the landlords 
all over the country, and because the Government had refused to 
provide in the act protection for the tenants in arrears, the land- 
lords were placing their arrears as an insurmountable barrier between 
their tenants and the Land Courts. Supposing that all the cases now 
before the courts could be dealt with as by a magician's wand, what 
would be the result 1 It was a mistake to presume that the Land Act 
applied to the whole of Ireland. Four million acres being superior 
land, was let on lease and did not come under the act. Three or 
four million more acres was land held by the landlords who let it to 
graziers by agreement for terms of six or twelve months, and then 
there was between seven and eight million acres of land — inferior 
land — which was held by the poorer classes of tenants and which 
would not come under the operation of the act. The value of this land 
was about seven million pounds sterling and no more, and if the 
Land Act could be applied to these seven millions of acres, based 
upon the decisions of the Sub-Commissioners, and their decisions 
had not been based upon any principle that he could discover, the 
result would be more satisfactory. 

The decisions of the Commissioners, by some strange portentous 
circimistance, had come to what he called a fluctuating level, like a 
Will o' the Wisp over a bog, never on the surface exactly, but still 
visible at a certain line, and they appeared to accept Griffiths* 
valuation as their basis, that which had been recommended by the 
Land League. But that was a decision which might have been 
acceptable some years ago, but which would not be acceptable now. 
What, for instance, would be the effect of a reduction on that basis 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 797 

on the seven million acres of land? Why, a gross reduction of about 
on tne seven nm sterling on the whole rent of Ireland. Did 

Z R^ht UoL^eotSiZn, the Prime Minister believe that 
the Seat a^Tan movement in Ireland could be satisfied with a 
rPdu?tion of one and a half millions sterling in the rents of the 
countrv or a I'eductkm of two shillings in the pound in the rental of 
Seland^ The idea would be absurd. Even if this reduction came 
into operation tomorrow, it could not satisfy and cou d not abate 
tt agrarian demands of the people. But, far from this being pos- 
sible Twa^ now stated on authority that the reductions to be made 
n rent would henceforth be at a lower figure than twef y-fiv^^^P r 
pent Then another point to be considered was this, that no matter 
Tow closely ?he Land Commissioners applied themse ves to their 
duties between twenty and thirty years must elapse before the cases 
in the Land Court could be dealt with. But the Irish people were 
not prepared to wait until the Twentieth Century, nor even till next 
yt'to'^have'the agrarian question ^^^fj^^'^^'^f^^,^^^ 
of Ireland were unprotected, seeing that they had no organization 
to counserthem, seeing that they were liable to ev.ct o ^ ,,m, 
their friends recommended the only remedy, that there should De 
-no rent" paid until their defensive organization was restored to 
them Conldering how the landlords were evading the Land Act 
conTiderinrhow they were threatening to increase the costs of those 
X wen^nto those^ourts to have -moved a rent that was nn^,^^^ 
and tyrannical, he expressed the sincere and fervent ^^^P^ ^^^^^^^^ 
tPTiaTit^ of Ireland would have the courage as well as the wisdom to 
J3 Lon the Hnes of the "No Rent" manifesto. He should de ay 
?e hX by pr^^^^^^^^^^^ to examine the groimds for considering 
the Right Honorable Gentleman (the Chief Secretary's) claim to 
I'e'caS'a philanthropist. Those ^^^^^^^^^ ^if:^ ^Z'^^^ ^^^ 
bktorv of Ireland for the past few months. He had imprisoned ana 
sub^Jted to indignity and^needless pain -»«/ h- '' ^..^^^^jS 
nf tbP House He had arrested hundreds of the most respectaoie 
IntfrXd, L while he spoke of the I-^^^^^ea^^^^^^^^ 
terrorism and intimidation on the V^oplel^e could n^h^^^^ 
to observe that any one who was honored by the Right HonjraWe 
Gentleman's warrant became immediately the object ot veneration 
1 A^i +n thP Irish people A man was arrested and instantly a 

A^^rn^n burS's. is imprisoned, and he is -l^ RM>t HonS 
Tmavor or rather he does not come out because the Riglit Honoraoie 
^e^Skn kelps him imprisoned, and only by a s retell of his 

"^thSS^^es-iSr^^^ 

amused the House by 'iescrilnng t J. ^^^^^^, ^ppii,a „o^, 

Lr ae'pSSt sitvSionT/lreland was'this; the Right Honorable 



798 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Gentleman had not succeeded in beating the men, and the women 
had beaten the Right Honorable Gentleman. Despite all his en- 
deavors to suppress the ' ' Ladies ' Land League ' ' by means of a police 
circular, and by throwing the responsibility upon the magistrates, 
he had failed in this purpose, and the ladies of Ireland had proved 
that they possessed spirit and patriotism, and ingenuity in conduct- 
ing their organization notwithstanding all the acts of the Right 
Honorable Gentleman and all the devices of his agents. The meanest 
act of his policy was this: that not being satisfied with having 
arrested a number of gentlemen and with having weighed, measured, 
and searched them; not satisfied with having first licensed vintners, 
and then broken their licenses on the ground that they were bad 
characters; not satisfied with having tortured men's minds and de- 
prived them of their means of living, he instructs the police to 
suppress the organization whose object was the collection of funds 
to save the suspects from living on prison fare. With regard to 
"United Ireland" it was no uncommon sight in the streets of Dublin 
to find a burly detective rushing about in pursuit of a barefooted 
little boy, with a group of awe-stricken citizens surveying the chase, 
and the big policeman marching off in triumph with one copy of 
"United Ireland" which he had discovered beneath the boy's ragged 
shirt. Such was the liberality and the decency of this Liberal Gov- 
ernment that the detective invariably refused to give the little beggar 
a penny for the paper. There were several other points to which the 
amendment referred, but the Government and the managers of that 
paper had for some time past been playing hide and seek through the 
United Kingdom, eyeing every suspicious parcel and running away 
with some of them before they could be aware of the nature of the 
contents. Everybody was at a loss to understand the legal justifica- 
tion of this conduct. A parcel, because labeled "United Ireland," 
was seized by the police before they could ascertain its contents. 
They had no legal pov/er to seize unless they were aware the papers 
contained seditious matter. It had all been so ably dealt with the 
previous night by his Honorable friend the member for County 
Carlow, the High Sheriff of Dublin, that he would not further delay 
the House. He believed the rents in reference to the gale coming in 
March would be smaller than the rents paid last September. He 
believed that the rents paid next September would be fewer than 
those paid in March, and that in March of next year they would be 
fewer still. He believed that the effect of this policy being continued 
by the people, in the face of the open incitement by the Government 
last night to the landlords to become wholesale evictors, would prove 
that there was no means of settling the Irish land question except by 
taking up the second article of the policy of the Land League, and 
extinguishing the interest of the landlord in the soil. The rules of 
the Land League are firm in the minds of the people and the spirit 
of the Land League is in their hearts. It was from the moral force 
resulting from these facts that he looked for the emancipation of the 
Irish people. In the last generation the English Government im- 
prisoned O'Connell and his movement died soon after. But when 
they arrested O'Connell the hand of old age was heavy upon him, 
and he did not long survive. The situation at present was quite 
different. In the height of his popularity and influence, in the vigor 
of his life and mental power, had they arrested the Honorable member 
for Cork City. But he would come forth one day, with his patriotism 




REV. DR. CHARLES O'REILLY, 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 799 

confirmed, and his influence strengthened, having suffered the penalty 
which every Irishman must suffer who conspicuously and courage- 
ously defends the cause of the Irish people. He would come forth 
the advocate, not only of the Irish tenants, but of the Irish people, 
and he (Mr. Sexton) fondly cherished the hope that the political 
and mental force which that illustrious prisoner has may be suc- 
cessfully used to lead to victory a people who had been taught by 
bitter adversity to suffer, without giving way, and to struggle in 
dark and evil days without ever losing hope. He confessed he could 
not resume his seat without referring to the eloquent and touching 
words addressed to the House last night, at the close of his speech, 
by the senior Honorable and learned member for the University of 
Dublin. One of the saddest circumstances of an Irishman holding a 
seat in that House was the necessity he was under of constantly 
listening to some of the ablest, the most intellectual, and best known 
of their countrymen leading the cause of the alien, and attacking 
the people from whom he had sprung. Last night the senior member 
for the University eloquently declared himself a lover of his country, 
and avowed himself an Irishman to the backbone. He (Mr. Sexton) 
felt to this statement an answering thrill, and the thought passed 
through his mind that it may not surpass the genius of the Honorable 
Gentleman who was now at the head of affairs (]\Ir, Gladstone), that 
it may not surpass the possibilities of coming years and politics to 
devise and execute some method which may save Irishmen from the 
shame and agony of occupying hostile camps in that House, and which 
may enable them at last to find a common ground for patriotic effort 
and honorable emulation on the soil of their native country. 

Mr, Sexton then resumed his seat, having spoken for two hours 
and twenty minutes. The House divided on the amendment at five 
minutes to eight o'clock amidst the cheers of the Irish members, who 
challenged the Attorney General for Ireland to address the House, 



THOMAS MOORE, ' ' THE POET OF ALL CIRCLES AND THE IDOL OF HIS OWN, 
BY REV. DR. CHARLES O'REILLY, DELIVERED IN CENTRAL 
MUSIC HALL, CHICAGO, MAY 28tH, 1894. 

American independence was three years old. The British, with char- 
acteristic ingenuity, were investing Charleston in denial of its birth 
and existence ; and Paul Jones was sweeping the cobwebs from their 
brains and the commerce from their seas in the capacity of an Ego- 
contra, when, in a latitude a little farther north than the upper shore 
of Lake Superior, Tom Moore was born. It is strange that Ireland, 
situated so far north, should have a climate rivaling that of southern 
latitudes; but that country is a land of marvels; God has clustered 
more miracles within her border than has favored any other land 
except Palestine. Her sons have been the wonder of all ages — and 
one of these was Moore. A circumstance of his birth is worth relating. 
His parents had rented rooms in their house to a gentleman of con- 
vivial habits; a number of select spirits had surrounded him for a 
festive night, when the servant entered and requested that they sus- 
pend revelries, in consideration of the mother and child. The gallant 
host at once acceded to^the request. It was then O'Connell's future 



800 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

friend, Jerry Keller, approved of the adjournment ''pro re nata 
for the thing born." So it was still listening to the sounds of mer- 
riment, to which she had become accustomed, that this noble lady- 
gave birth to the greatest of Irish poets. That he was a poet, I shall 
agree to consider to-night as accidental; my main contention being 
that he was a typical Irishman and that the type tvas very high. 
I say this advisedly, because from the day that an alien ritual was 
read over his inanimate form and the cold Wiltshire clods were 
choked in upon his coffin, a cool, ill-defined, alienating atmosphere 
has brooded over his memory in the minds of many of his fellow 
countrymen; and this ought not to be. For, if ever Ireland had a 
son whose life was bound to her's by chains of adamant, whose heart 
went out to her in swelling tides of devotion, whose soul reveled in 
ecstasy at contemplation of her glories, or burned with lethal rage 
at sight of her misfortune and sorrows — I fear not to say it — ^that man 
was Moore. He was Irish and nothing else. Irish in his filial affec- 
tion, Irish in his domestic devotion, Irish in his patriotism and his 
profound religious conviction. I am far from claiming for him an 
exclusive proprietorship of these qualifications. No shade of the 
f mighty dead would scowl on such an effort more intensely than 
I his. These qualities conspire to fix the true standard of Irish man- 
I hood, and are not necessarily allied with learning or genius like to 
' Moore 's. It would be enough for him, it is enough for me, if, to-night, 
I hold him up to the high standard of his national type. I have 
seen it presented in the famished features of the peasant, as he came 
for the first time from Lismore or Connemara, and gazed with open- 
eyed astonishment at the tawdry splendors of a poverty-stricken 
inland town. I have followed that fellow to the harvest fields of 
England, and there have seen him toil and starve beside his Saxon 
co-laborer — who must have his beef and ale — have seen him do and 
endure that thus he might save the extra shillings for the wife and 
children, the father and mother, the younger brothers and sisters at 
home in Holy Ireland; whilst, all the time, in his inmost soul, he 
regarded the man beside him, and the master over him, of foreign 
blood and alien creed, with contempt akin to that entertained by the 
Israelite of old for the uncircumcised whom God allowed to lord it 
over him only that the divine wrath might be thus in time awakened, 
and the impious more utterly be destroj^^ed. Nothing in this world 
has been more signal than the failure inscribed upon the English- 
man's endeavor to make the Irishman the creature of his thought. 
He has carried his defenses by cannon and the sword, he has laid 
illegitimate hands on his possessions. He has swathed his form in 
rags and pinched his flesh with hunger — but he has never been able, 
no, not in the slightest degree, to approach or touch his soul.^ No! 
He may submit to his yoke with evil grace, he may dwell in his 
country, he may embark in his ships and plant for him the distant 
colony, but under no circumstances will the Irishman ever accept the 
Englishman's standard of thought. And in any and every case 
where we are called to sit in judgment upon the all-important ques- 
tion of the individuality of one of our race, I should submit that it 
should be the principle of our Celtic ethics to get to a man's thought. 
Let me hear him, or read him, or study him, and I will determine 
easily and infallibly, has he an Irish thought? Now, take up Tom 
Moore and read him line by line, cull every recorded incident from 
the history of his extraordinary career, and tell me, only after due 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 801 

reflection, can you catch a glimpse from that rich mental repertoire 
of a thought that was not eminently Irish? But, if I have estah- 
lished this, I have established much. For I have not to plead the 
superiority, in energy, in intensity, in spiritual refinement of Irish 
intellectuality, in quality at least. It has been too forcefully illus- 
trated through the ages to the nations, and by few, if by any more 
than Moore himself. It accounts for what the Encyclopedia Britan- 
nica calls "the most extraordinary incident in the history of our 
literature, the instantaneousness with which the son of an humble 
Dublin grocer, just out of his teens, on his first visit to London, cap- 
tivated the fashionable world and established himself in the course of 
a few months as one of its prime favorites. It was not his personal 
magnetism, though he was not without it; it was not his engaging 
manners, though he knew how to be agreeable; it was not his min- 
strelsy, which was acknowledged faulty; it was the fact that he 
turned upon ripened intellects the pure tide of lustral Irish thought, 
and to those intellects it came like the chorus of angels to the wakeful 
shepherds amid the chill dews of the winter night at Bethlehem — 
it was not merely music; it was not revelation. It enchanted such 
men as Thierry, the French historian who exclaimed : ' ' Ireland, the 
elder child of the Celtic race ! The island of saints ! Land of poets ; 
of bold thinkers, of John Erigna, of Berkley, of Toland, of Moore 
and O'Connell; land of brilliant speech and of lightening sword, 
which in the senility of the world still preserves the original power 
of poetry." It vanquished the haughty Byron, an Irish hater by 
birth and character into the declaration that "there was something 
so warm, so sublime in the core of an Irishman's heart that I envy 
the dead." It won such men as Willis and Washington Irving even 
at sight. It melted Roger, and Sidney Smith, and Cristopher North 
into tears. It delighted Scott, Campbell, Jeffry, McAuly, Sheridan, 
Shields and O'Connell, with its indigenous strains. 

It spoke to the European world with its unhesitating, unobstructed 
accents of a mother's voice. The Orient opened its dreamy eyes at 
the approach of the sympathetic sounds, and extracted the Asiatic 
thought from the barbarous dialect in which it was enveloped, and 
received it for its own, 

"I'm told, dear Moore, your lays are sung, 

Can this be true, you lucky man, 
By moonlight in the Persian tongue 

Along the streets of Ispahan?" 

What is it I mean to say? that there is something liniq.U6, especial 
and distinctive in Irish thought? C'est moi. That is just what I 
mean ; and would you know it all, or know it better, familiarize your- 
self with Moore. It is a rich and varied thought balancing from 
grave to gay; now as joyous as the note of the nightingale, now 
plaintive as the plover's song; betimes as gentle as the zephyr's 
breath and anon as scorching as the fiery touch of the fierce sirocco, 
e. g., "The Last Rose of Summer," and the "Curse of the Informer." 
It has been said that although Moore commenced life as a patriot, 
he sank in after years into the condition of a mere Whig or Liberal, 
all sentiment of Irish nationality having died out of him. The 
imputation is an unjust one. It is utterly impossible to divest such 
a soul of the love of motherland so long as reason crowned her throne 



S02 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

on the apex of that lofty mind. No person has done more to make 
the world understand the real relationship subsisting between the 
Irish soul and the Irish soil, to teach the alien that the cause of 
Ireland is not an affair of vulgar material interests, but is woven 
so inextricably around the Irish heart as the network of arteries 
through which it draws the blood, and the delicate machinery of 
nerves by which it receives and communicates its impressions, that it 
has all the passionate romance and pathetic glows of love, that it is 
invested with something of the mysterious sanctity of religion. No 
man with heart or brain can read Moore and not become convinced 
that patriotism is a passion of the Irish heart, which is blent with 
whatever is ennobling and divine in Irish nature. It dawns upon us 
like the memory of the first fond gaze of a loving mother's eyes. 
It is the whispered poetry of childhood's hours. It is the song that 
is sung by every gurgling brook in the land, for every brooklet in 
Ireland has been incrimsoned with the blood of heroes. It is the 
weird voice that comes to us from the green hillside where our fathers 
lie sleeping, for every Irish hillside has been strewn with heroed dead. 
Moore has crammed his pages with the records of their noble deeds, 
with the triumphs of their tragic deaths. He could be said to have 
penned his lines with the blood of the martyred heroes of his nation. 
He deified their deeds in allegorical epics that are without a parallel 
for pathos and passion. He entwined their names with imperishable 
strains of music, which wafted them over the world. What is the 
burdens of his melodies, the inspiration of his epics, the acidity of his 
satires, the soul of his lyrics, but Ireland, her scenery, her sons and 
her sadness 1 Moore never could have so written Ireland if he did not 
think Ireland ; as well you might suppose the psalms of David to have 
emanated from a soul but superficially in love with God. The condi- 
tion of Ireland has been such that ordinary language is inadequate 
to express her wrongs. Some unusual agency of speech must be 
employed, such as poetry, parable or prayer, and these Moore wielded 
with unexampled vigor and unequalled skill. When estimating his 
character the condition of Ireland ought never to be lost sight of. 
It is almost impossible for any one of the present day to realize 
the political and social condition of the Catholics in that country 
a century since. It was but a little before the time of Moore's birth 
that a gentleman holding the position and title of Lord Chancellor 
stated from the bench "That the laws did not presume a Papist to 
exist in the kingdom, nor could they breathe without the connivance 
of the Government." From 1665 exercise of the office of professor, 
schoolmaster or tutor, by a Catholic was declared penal, and from 
1695 the education of the Catholics abroad was prohibited. Moore 
was thirteen years old before Catholics were allowed to open schools 
in Ireland. I need not avert to the repeated confiscations of the 
estates of Catholics, to the laws which prevented them from holding 
land on lease, to their exclusion from corporate and municipal bodies 
as well as from the practice of the liberal profession, and the for- 
feiture of the horse if he were worth twenty-five dollars. Still the 
darkest hour of the penal night may be said to have been that which 
measured the distance between Emmett and O'Connell when it was 
transportation for three or more Irishmen to be found conversing 
together, and when Irishmen were run outside the gates of Irish 
cities like lepers at sundown by the sound of the evening bell. This 
reference to the condition of the Catholics of Ireland at the period 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 803 

of Moore's birth and after is absolutely necessary if we would fairly 
estimate his courage, his patriotism and the political influence he 
exercised. It has been too much the habit to detach Moore's char- 
acter from the environment of the time, and judge it by stand- 
ards that are anachronism, historically and philosophically unsound 
and unjust. As well might we consider Washington apart from the 
War of Independence or O'Connell extracted from emancipation. 
It was a crime to christen Tom Moore, yet he was christened; it 
was a penal offence to educate him, yet he became a great scholar; 
the colleges were closed against him, yet he went through with all 
the honors they could confer and ripened into a lofty-souled, liberal- 
minded man; it was "treason to love his country and death to defend 
her," yet he loved her passionately and defended her effectively. 
He was not the stuff of which military martyrs like Robert Emmett 
are made. He had not in him the material of an active politician 
like O'Connell. His genius led him into different directions, but his 
heart was none the less a good warm heart, full of love and friend- 
ship, fidelity and patriotism, which overflowed in songs of sympathy 
and sorrow — songs that will be remembered till the end of time. 
Though small of stature, in physical courage we know he was not 
wanting. If it be objected that he was not implicated in Emmett 's 
insurrection, how much of this may we not attribute to the generous, 
self-sacrificing friend? These two young men, so attached to each 
other in youth, are, each in his own way, admirable types of the Irish 
man. One is a strange mixture of gentleness, tenderness, modesty, 
terrible determination, obstinacy if you will, utter self-abnegation, 
all included in the highest nobility of soul. The other was gay, genial, 
kindly affectionate, feeling the Irish tragedy to the marrow of his 
bones, but not possessed of the vocation to follow his devoted and 
doomed brother unto death. For national no less than religious 
martyrdom must have its call. Circumstances ordinarily reveal the 
will of God. And in political revolutions as in religious convulsions 
all are not meant to die. Here, no less than there, the intruder is 
left unsupported by opportune race in a vain-glorious pretension, 
and makes, as a rule, poor and profitless work of his undertakings. 
Never was a vocation to national martyrdom more definitely marked 
than was that of Robert Emmett. He was called to die for his coun- 
try, and never did man make death more profitable. The death of 
Moore would have done no good at all. Nay ; what was sublime in Em- 
mett would have hardly failed to be ridiculous in Moore. Emmett 
died, and Moore wept and sang over his grave ! From the grave a 
ghost is forever rising and going forth upon its walk around the world. 
It is no longer imprisoned within the limits of the land he died to be 
saved. It floats over the ocean in Music's misty mantle and stalks 
through the land of the stranger. It weaves its magic spell around 
the youth of Irish birth and blood, captivates his senses and enlists 
his soul in the lost enterprise. Through the darkness of night that 
music carries those plaintive words to his imagination like voices on 
the night-winds from his own mother land. It comes to his mind 
laden with the memory of a wrong unavenged and a strife unfinished, 
of a hope which only brightened suffering and which no human 
weapon could subdue. It carries with it the conviction that, so long 
as the epitaph remains unwritten, his mission is unfulfilled. It fires 
his heart and sends the blood boiling through his veins, till all 
unconsciously his nerves are strung for heroic deeds and even for 



804 Ireland.'s Crown of Thorns and Roses 

reckless enterprises. This is not the language of fancy. Far less is 
it exaggeration. I come from a city whose native-born but recently 
went forth and coolly perished in a desperate attempt to blow up 
London Bridge, not because he envied any man his wealth or station, 
not that he entertained any animosity towards civil society, nor had he 
any quarrel with humanity. No; but because Robert Emmett was 
butchered like a beast and his epitaph remained unwritten. I knew 
him well ; so did many of you. He was sedate and thoughtful, tender, 
brave and tranquil. I have rarely known a more religious soul. I 
once found him weeping in a corner while * ' Breathe Not His Name ' ' 
was being sung in the parlor adjacent. I have ever since found a 
fearful significance in the lines: 

"And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls, 
Shall long keep his memory green in our souls." 

The young Protestant aristocrat, Emmett, obeyed the divine 
"call" and died for his countrymen all without distinction of race or 
creed, and the son of the Catholic peasant exile gave life for life 
to "keep green the martyr's memory," and by this shall all men 
know what a spiritual intensity lies deep down in Irish patriotism. 
Between Robert Emmett and William Mackay Lomasney there would 
seem to have been an infinite distance, but Moore brought them close 
together. Wanton vengeance for vengeance's sake is not a passion 
of the Irish heart. The Celtic race is a race ruled by its spiritual 
instincts rather than by those more ravenous virtues we share with 
the hyenas and wolves, and a race clad in the celestial armor of 
faith and hope is imperishable, no matter how disarmed, bare and 
degraded it may appear in the eyes of a triumphant soldiery or a 
more ruthless legislature. Moore thoroughly appreciated this. He 
knew how, in that dark penal-night I have mentioned, the song of 
"Drimmin dhu Deilish" or the "Black Bird" sung low around the 
winter turf fire in the Sheiling, had more influence to preserve the 
spirit of Irish nationality than all the enactments of coercion min- 
istries, enforced by all the might of England was able to counteract, 
and he set himself resolutely to the task of binding up with the 
national music those memories of an honest, noble past — ^that spirit 
of defiance to the misfortune of the present — ^those hopes in a golden 
future which will never cease to act upon the Irish organization 
while a drop of Celtic blood courses in a human vein. It is the 
claim I make for Moore that he knew as well what he was doing 
while he lived as Emmett did when he died. ' ' I would hold that life 
any more than death were unprofitable," cried Emmett, "while a 
foreign power held my country in subjection." It is to the im- 
perishable glory of these two men that they did their work without 
malice and forethought, and precisely at a time when action was 
imperatively demanded. The fires of liberty that lit the hillsides 
in '98 had been quenched in blood. The leaders of the Irish people 
had been banished or slain; the iniquitous union had been effected 
with circumstances of atrocity that have no parallel in history. The 
necks of the devoted nation had been placed in Chancery under 
England's iron arm, where she was for all time to be kept quiet — 
when, like a meteor from the sky rendered incandescent by the 
rapidity of its approach to earth, and bursting from suppressed 
emotion, young Emmett came with lightning sword and flashing eye — • 



Gbeat Speeches on Great Occasions 805 

appeared and died, crying like Winkleried, "Make way for liberty." 
It was Ireland's answer and defiance of English power and perfidy 
to wrest from her autonomy or shake her trust in freedom's God. 
That death showed England and showed the world how Ireland was 
.to be kept in subjection. It fixed the seal upon the resolve of Irish 
manhood never to submit to a colonial existence. But, my friends, 
I believe that death would have lost its force had Moore not lived 
to give it meaning ; and with this view in head and this purpose kept 
steadily in hand, I dare to believe that it was as heroic in him to live 
as in Emmett to die. For think again of the time, think of the con- 
ditions. After the terrible disaster of the Williamite war following 
close upon the footsteps of the confederacy of 1641, of the hangings 
and the burnings and wholesale confiscation and banishments of 
1798, after the brutal and powerful and sanguinary suppression of 
1803, he still was found the plucky little fellov^r, to fearlessly, art- 
lessly take up the part of his country, with the inspiration of a 
bard of ancient Israel, and fling it proudly, fiercely in the face of a 
scornful, scoffing world. In the very face of defeat and disaster and 
wreck and ruin, he dared to assert that he still had a country — a 
country with a past that could not be taken from her, that her glories 
were imperishable, her history indestructible, her sorrows pathetic, 
her heroes sublime. Aye, when Ireland was lying before her con- 
queror, as dead as a corpse on a dissecting table, he seized her harp 
and made its every chord vibrate with heroic history from Brian 
Boru to the martyred Emmett. He dared to remind the exultant 
foeman that when England had yielded to the Dane and stretched 
out its neck to the yoke of the feudal Norseman, lie had a country 
which had offered to the invader the attitude of uncompromising 
war. ' ' Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave, ' ' that Ireland had 
a people stamped with the undeniable device of freedom and refine- 
ment. ''The Harp That Once Through Tara's Hall" — that they had 
peace, order and civilization. "Rich and Rare were the Gems She 
Wore," that at a time when the coasts of Italy were darkened by 
the Saracen invasions, when feudal Germany was laid waste before 
the arrows of the Hungarians, and the hoofs of the Lombard horse 
were trampling on the vineyards of the south, Ireland lay far away 
amidst the billows of the Atlantic, an island devoted to the culture 
of religion and the peaceful sciences, the home of Christian letters 
and the nursery of Christian virtues. "Like the bright lamp that 
shone in Kildare's Holy Fame." He pointed out to his own people 
that they had a country worth fighting and dying for. ' ' There is not 
in this Wide World a Valley so sweet," and that Ireland had sons 
who were proud and felt blest to die for her still, as he puts in the 
mouth of his murdered friend those deathless words addressed to 
his country: 

"Oh, blest are the lovers and friends who shall live 

The days of thy glory to see; 
But the next dearest blessing that Heaven can give 

Is the power of thus dying for thee." 

And I say that next in order of benediction was the blessing and 
binding up that sentiment with imperishable strains of music, and 
sending it forth upon the wild winds to accompany Emmett 's ghost 
"and give it voice through time and space, and so make his memcrj? 



806 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

as effective as it is immortal. Aye, and I repeat, the best of all is 
that he knew what he was doing. 

"The stranger shall hear thy lament on his plains; 

The sigh of thy harp shall be sent o'er the deep. 
Till thy masters themselves, as they rivet thy chains, 

Shall pause at the song of their captive and weep." 

Ireland will remember and love both these men, but Moore more 
for the sake of E'mmett than for his own very extraordinary claims 
upon her gratitude. These claims would be paramount though he 
had done nothing more than snatch from obscurity so much of the 
sweet, wild, pathetic music floating over our hills and through our 
valleys and preserved it to us for all time, by linking it with his 
own tender and charming verse. The IRISH MELODIES, words 
and music are unique. If every other production of his genius were 
destroyed or forgotten, these alone would immortalize his memory and 
establish a claim to the enduring gratitude of his country. Closely 
examined, in comparison with the national lyrics of any other people 
or age — ^Pagan, Jew or Christian, Oriental, European, Greek or 
Roman, ancient or modern — ^we find no such other collection. Bal- 
lads, songs, lays, odes and historiettes abound indeed in all lands, 
in all tongues and at all periods, differing in culture and in form. 
But, so far as known, no attempt has ever been made to embody so 
many characteristics of a nation, its social life, scenery, manners 
and customs; legends, traditions, victories and defeats; its dark his- 
tory and bright hopes in lyric form welded to music, familiar by 
its antiquities and its winning pathos to the entire people; and in- 
spiriting their dances and athletic games, that proclaimed their tri- 
umphs and softened their defeats. Analyze the lyric poetry of any 
country you choose, ancient or modern, and you will find that it covers 
a comparatively small portion only of the life and history of the peo- 
ple ; whereas the subjects of the IRISH MELODIES range over nearly 
the entire scope of Irish life, past and present. The appearance of 
the first number produced a profound political impression. They 
were the most effective auxiliaries brought up to support the elo- 
quence of O'Connell in the struggle for Catholic Emancipation. They 
served to immense advantage in the agitations for popular .education. 
Parliamentary reform, the tithe-war and the church establishment. 
So, this man who has been accused of a want of patriotism, served 
through three campaigns and scarcely wrote on any other theme. In 
fact, the astonishing thing about it all is, that he was read with 
much avidity throughout Europe whilst he hardly wrote anything 
but IRELAND. To point out particulars were a task of despair, 
unless we consented, and the idea is not a bad one, to resolve our- 
selves into a Chautauqua Circle with Moore's works for the one 
subject of research. It is the fire of the passion of Irish patriotism 
that illuminates his every page. Of course, as a boy, he wrote some 
trash, which his amateur judgment amends for. "Few poets have 
sailed to Delphi without touching at Cythera." The spirit of Irish 
hospitality is the only apology we can offer for the composition of 
the "Prince's Day," and I am willing to concede it never ought have 
been written ; but perfection is not to be looked for on earth and you 
and I are too well acquainted with practical life to institute such an 
inquisition first on a poet and then an Irishman. • Still I say, the 




THOMAS MOORE. 
'The Poet of all circles and the Idol of his own." 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 807 

more you familiarize yourself with Moore, the more will you become 
convinced that his patriotism was his all-absorbing, consuming pas- 
sion. It was the sacred, inextinguishable fire that burned upon the 
holy mountain — 

"Though fled the priest, the votary gone, 
Still did the mighty flame burn on 

Through shame and change, through good and ill, 

Like its own God's eternal will. 
Deep, constant, bright, unquenchable." 

The truth is he could write nothing else. He failed in the com- 
position of LALLAH ROOKH, until his imagination clothed in the 
eastern garb his Irish conception. The four Oriental poems are only 
lengthened melodies in which the political and religious struggles of 
his own country are dramatized in Asia. "The Loves of the Angels" 
are grand allegories of the spiritual life. Hymns, poems, and at 
least one book which has made its author famous, "The Gates Ajar," 
have sprung from suggestions in the "Loves of the Angels." I have 
seen more severe criticism of these poems, but I cannot say that I 
ever discerned anything to admire in the mental structure of the 
critics. David and Solomon might well dread the effects of their 
productions upon such minds. Moore's satirical writings produced 
an immense sensation. They flash with wit and wound like swords. 
His mind was like a diamond — ^it glittered at once and cut. Like 
most of his other writings, they were brought out in support of his 
own country, but if any statesman or political economist will peruse 
the productions to-day I promise him compensation in the fact that 
he will find so many of them applicable to the somewhat abnormal 
circumstances which just now surround us. Moore was never engaged 
in any composition depending on false idiom for wit or character. 
The stage representation of the Irishman, generally rendered by some 
idler from Vermont or Boston, passing off as "Pat Rooney" or 
' ' Larry 'Neill, ' ' has had nothing to borrow from Moore. What has 
he done to divert from him the full tide of the admiration, love and 
gratitude of his countrymen ! It is undeniable that his popularity has 
been waning since his death. Is it his success that man has come 
to harbor against him? It was indeed phenomenal, but was it not 
deserved ? 

"Perhaps he was not hero born, 

Like those he sung, Heaven only knows; 
He had the rose without the thorn, 

But he deserved the rose. 
For under its gentle light 

His heart was warm, his soul was strong; 
He kept his love of country bright 

And sung her sweetest songs." 

At the time that the meteoric Lord Byron was advancing, torch 
in hand, to the stage of English letters, wh-^n Scott, Rogers, Camp- 
bell, Crabbe, Southey, were rushing forward to divide the attention 
of the English-speaking world — think of the poor little fellow starting 
out from his home above the grocery store in Aungier street, with 
the "Odes of Anacreon" in his pocket and the few sovereigns and 



808 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

scapular his. pious mother had stitched into the waistband of his 
trousers, going forth alone to hostile, conceited, supercilious London 
and taking front rank amongst them all ! Alone did I say ? No, not 
alone, for God was with him, God and his own true heart! He has 
been accused of playing the sycophant because he placed himself 
in association with the great ! Where were his associations to be, if 
he were to do any good? What evidence is there that he ever 
pawned his independence for aristocratic patronage? I have studied 
his life somewhat intently, and so far as I can discern, he played in 
this particular the role of the Irishman up to the letter, viz.: when 
there was any patronizing to be done, he did it on the other fellow as 
the Prince of Wales and Duke of Wellington learned to their chagrin. 
The only reason he did not keep Leigh Hunt company in jail was 
that His Royal Highness did not dare incur the odium of such an 
act.^ The patronage of the Earl of Moira has been used to Moore's 
prejudice in some quarters. Lord Moira was one of the most dis- 
tinguished soldiers and statesmen of his age. He supported the 
patriotic party in Ireland, being always on the side of Grattan and 
Charlemont. He promoted the Catholic claims; denounced the cruel- 
ties of 1798, and opposed the "Union." It was in repairing to his 
house to see his wife that Lord Edward Fitzgerald was set upon in 
Watting street. May 17th, '98, by officers of the Crown, whom, after a 
brisk encounter, he defeated, "himself against four." Next day he 
was captured after the terrific conflict with which you are all fa- 
miliar. Surely there was nothing in this association to compromise 
Moore's principles! O'Connell retained respect for and confidence 
in him to the end of his life, as is shown by the fact that in 1852 
he offered him the representation in Parliament of the city of 
Limerick, the tender being made by another Irish poet, the just and 
gentle Gerald Griffin. Moore declined, owing entirely to his circum- 
stances, but records that were he to go to Parliament he would take 
the "Repeal Pledge," confident though he was that it would lead to 
separation from England. 

Moore had been charged with being an "absentee" and living 
out of Ireland. Literature was his profession, and what market had 
he for it in Dublin? Has he no claim to justice at our hands? The 
incident I have already alluded to touching his last days and inter- 
ment is alike susceptible of explanation. From 1846 or thereabout 
he showed increasing signs of decay of mental power, and, as with 
Swift, Scott, Southey, O'Connell, and other literary veterans, soft- 
ening of the brain steadily set in. The last three or four years of 
his life his intellect became quite clouded. No one but his wife 
so much as saw him the last two years of his life. This is the period 
fixed upon by the religious scandalmongers for his so-called apostasy. 
What other man was ever held accountable for the days he had passed 
in mental darkness? It is feared he was buried with a Protestant 
service of some kind, and poor Bessie was roundly rated for it by the 
Catholic journals of the day as "an outrage on her Catholic husband 
and an insult to Catholic Ireland." From all I have been able to 
find out regarding this thing, the charge has never been duly sub- 
stantiated by even respectable hearsay evidence. He was buried very 
quietly in Bronham Churchyard, only three or four friends being 
in attendance. There were no Catholics and no Catholic church 
near Moore's residence for fifty or sixty years, and if, perchance, 
some service was read or some prayer offered at their dismal little 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 809 

funeral, those few friends and poor Bessie undoubtedly thought they 
were doing the best they could. I certainly do not conceive that 
there was anything in these facts to cast a shadow of suspicion on 
the constancy of one who stood so manfully by his co-religionists 
amid their darkest hours, and has left so many imperishable monu- 
ments of his faith behind him. He was a regular attendant at mass 
in Warwick street chapel when in London, and so was his eldest son. 
Lord John Russell attests "that he lived and died a Catholic." He 
enjoyed the confidence of the Archbishops Murray, McHale, Dr. 
Doyle, O'Connell and all of the Catholic opinion in Ireland. While 
in England he was the intimate friend of Cardinal (Dr.) Wiseman 
and Dr. Lingard, and was invited by Wiseman to contribute articles 
on delicate ecclesiastical subjects in the Dublin Review. In dis- 
missing this subject, I desire to say, as a priest and one whose in- 
tensity as a Catholic priest has never, I think, been questioned, that 
the longer I live the less respect I am learning to feel for that genius 
of Catholic who is forever coming forward with imputations like this 
upon prominent men, whose ambition and aim in life seems to be to 
read somebody out of the Church, and whose religious functions are 
exhausted, as is generally the case — in swooping around to determine 
pro bono publico whether someone else "made his Easter duties" 
or not. So far as I have observed, the eminent service these persons 
render to the Church is to deprive the membership of such men as 
Moore, Michand, Chateaubraind, Pope, Dryden and Boyle O'Reilly. 
It is to that class of animal that we owe, quite exclusively, the 
insinuations in circulation regarding Moore's religion, and he is 
twin-brother to that other ape who thought to deprive Ireland of 
him by impugning his patriotism. Religious and racial ghouls who 
unearth dead men's bones, but whose grimaces can only impose upon 
the ignorant. If Ireland had borrowed O'Connell from Spain; if 
she had caught Father Mathew from the skies; if Prance had given 
birth to her noblest son and named him Robert Emmett, and if 
Curran and Grattan had never been born, still I think that little 
island would be remembered for ages, and I think forever, as the 
birthplace and country of Thomas Moore. 

Why, this man was greater than Columbus, for he faced more 
determined hostility and vanquished it with greater ease, he opened 
to the world a mental and spiritual continent which will be sought 
out by the oppressed of every clime till Time or Tyranny shall be 
no more; whilst the multitudes of the earth that claim an Irish 
ancestry in every land will continue to learn to love "Tom Moore" 
the more as the light of receding ages brightens his memory. When 
nations dissolve, their great men move behind a curtain that but few 
ever raise; when wars are over and the dashing soldier and great 
commander rest for fame in some historical catalogue or brief pub- 
lication, then, as the psalms of David and songs of Solomon outlive 
the triumphs and the temples which they reared, so will the melodies 
of Moore resist the corroding marks of time and live, and still live 
on while the human soul retains emotion and Ireland raises her lofty 
peaks above the level of the sea. It is not within the scope of my 
purpose here to-night to discuss his poetry. I have disclaimed this 
intention at the beginning, though candidly I profess some slight 
pretensions thereon. He has many anniversaries yet to come. Let 
me say that I consider our failures to do justice to his memory due 
to the fact that we try to do too much at once. I honor intensely 



810 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

tKe purpose of this association. I commend to those who follow 
me the consideration of his merits, point by point. He is one of 
those men — those rare men — whom you cannot deal with biograph- 
ically in one evening; he is a man whose writings you cannot con- 
dense. A great lawyer and literateur said to me some years ago, '*I 
tried to lecture on Lallah Rookh, but it was like writing a brief upon 
Erskine — the condensing had all been done." I think any one who 
has studied Moore a little will see the virtue of this saying. He was 
too many sided to be dealt with once for all. It cannot be done; 
and the simple reason is that he was imbued so thoroughly with the 
spirit of his country, and comprehended so accurately the range of 
his subject, and lent his mind so exclusively to the condensation of 
it that no man thereafter can "draw a brief." He has written a 
book of poetic national gospels. What we have to do is study, con- 
template and explain them. Therefore, this evening I have tried to 
confine myself to the one leading point — the salient feature of his 
character — that he was an Irishman. It is a worthy subject and 
I leave it in worthy hands. I hope that those who follow me will 
train the harpsichord and acquaint you with the power which he did 
not indeed create — but which he had the soul to appreciate — the 
power there is in Irish recollection and which lives in Irish music 
expressive of Irish life. And if, in that refined disquisition, you 
find as years go on that he was not, in all things and on every 
occasion, clear up to the type we have learned to love and to exact 
from our own alone — ^why, then, I will ask you with a tear to 

"Blame not the bard, if in pleasure's soft dream 

He has tried to forget what he never could heal; 
Oh! give but a hope, let a vista but gleam 

Through the gloom of his country, and mark how he'll feel; 
That instant, his heart at her shrine would lay down 

Every passion it nursed, every bliss it adored. 
While the myrtle, now idly entwined with his crown 

Like the wreath of Harmodius would cover his sword!" 

Mr. Parnell, a few years since, voiced a practical thought when 
he said in prospect of Ireland's independence that "she would need 
every man she had, be he Protestant or Catholic," and it seems to 
me, in view of the present state of affairs, that Ireland needs every 
man she ever had (excepting Castlereagh). We are not standing 
high in the world's estimation to-day, nor what is infinitely worse — 
in our own; nor do I think that our former prestige with ourselves, 
with the nations, will again be restored until Irish swords shall once 
again be lifted in battle. Our forensic ability, our parliamentary 
performances are all very well, but the world has had too much of 
them. The nations have ceased to think of us, we have almost ceased 
to think of ourselves, as the men not alone of lightening wits, but of 
lightening sabres, and I know of nothing better calculated to prepare 
us for that dread, but inevitable ordeal, which we have so often 
sustained before, than the music of Ireland, the poetry of Moore. 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 811 

A PLEA FOR IRELAND. 

BY HON. W. BOURKE COCKRAN, M. C. 

Wednesday evening, March 4, 1896, witnessed the most remark- 
able Nationalist demonstration ever held by the Irish people of New 
York City. In every respect it was a memorable meeting. One of 
the greatest of living orators delivered the speech of his life and the 
audience which listened to him was in numbers, intelligence and en- 
thusiasm the finest that ever greeted an Irishman pleading Ireland's 
case before the civilized world. 

The occasion was the celebration of the Robert Emmet anniver- 
sary by the Clan-na-Gael ; the scene was the great hall of the Grand 
Central Palace, Lexington avenue, 43rd and 44th streets ; the orator 
was William Bourke Cockran. There were over 10,000 people 
crowded into the hall, every available inch of space on the floor, the 
galleries and in the aisles being occupied, and the men and women 
there assembled were the elite of the Irish people of the Empire City. 
On the platform, in the boxes and the reserved seats were more dis- 
tinguished Americans than ever before listened to an Irish orator. 
Men of national reputation on the bench, at the bar, in the pulpit — 
priests and ministers — in the medical profession, in commercial and 
public life, were there and vied with the seething mass of Irish people 
around them in the vigor and enthusiasm of their plaudits. They 
came to hear an eloquent tribute to the memory of Robert Emmet; 
they heard instead a vindication of the cause for which Emmet gave 
his life, an unanswerable arraignment of English rule, a masterly 
statement of Ireland's unalienable and indestructible right to govern 
herself. 

It was a military as well as a civic display, and the prominence 
given to the fighting element by the organizers of the demonstration 
was significant of the present drift of opinion and of the new hopes 
born of England's thickening international difficulties. The First 
Regiment of Irish Volunteers, over 600 strong, under Colonel James 
Moran, armed and fully equipped, lined the aisles and guarded the 
doors, and a finer body of Irish soldiers never shouldered rifle or stood 
in line. When the orator of the evening was escorted to the platform 
with thirty officers with drawn swords as a guard of honor, there was 
a scene of enthusiasm that will not soon be forgotten by those who 
witnessed it. 

And to cap the climax of the military character of the display a 
distinguished Irish soldier of the American Civil War, General James 
R. O'Beirne — as fine a type of physical manhood as ever left the 
shores of Ireland — was chairman of the meeting and opened the pro- 
ceedings with a short, but eloquent speech, explaining the aims and 
objects of the Clan-na-Gael and asserting Ireland's right to recover 
her freedom by the same means as brought the great Republic of the 
West into existence. The meeting did not inaugurate any "new move- 
ment, ' ' but it demonstrated that the old Clan-na-Gael is still full of a 
vigorous vitality and entering on a new era of progress and energetic 
prosecution of the old struggle with England. 

Among the prominent people present were Supreme Court Judges 
J. O. Dyckman, Martin J. Keogh, Morgan J. O'Brien, Frederick 
Smyth, Judges Leonard J. Giegerich, Calvin E. Pratt, J. P. Bernard, 
William J. Gaynor, Judges Clement, James Fitzgerald, Van Hoesen,' 



812 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

ex-Lieut.-Governor AVilliam F. Sheehan, John C. Sheehan, ex-Judge 
Edward Browne, Richard S Emmet, Fordham Morris, Chauncey J. 
Secor, Congressman Fairchild of Port Chester, State Comptroller 
Roberts, John E. Milholland, Thomas Costigan, Dr. Gregory Cos- 
tigan. 

Fully a hundred priests were in the audience. Among those 
noticed in the front seats were : Rev. Dr. McDonald, D. D., Rev. Fr. 
Scott, Rev. R. J. O'Keefe, Rev. Fr. Doyle, Rev. Fr. Wallace, Rev. 
Fr. Harrigan, Rev. Fr. Dougherty, Rev. Fr. Powers. 

Every member of the Clan-na-Gael in the city and vicinity not 
detained by duty elsewhere was present. All the old-timers were on 
hand and the young blood which is fast pushing to the front was fully 
represented. Among those known outside of New York were Chair- 
man R. J. Kennedy of the Committee of Arrangements, Henry V. 
Doyle of Yonkers, County Clerk John M. Digney of White Plains, 
Assemblyman John King of Passaic, N. J., Assemblyman Trainor of 
New York City, John J. Rossiter of Newark, James F. Gallagher of 
Brooklyn, John Conway, John Devoy, Edward 'Flaherty, Michael 
Breslin, National Delegate Haggerty, A. 0. H. (Board of Erin), State 
Secretary Terence Donohue, Capt. James S. Treacy, James O'Sullivan, 
John Timmons, Wm. Leonard, John Kenny, Bernard F. McCabe, 
Timothy Breslin, James McCarthy, Michael Ledwith, P. F. Higgins, 
Edward Quinnell, Frank Mullin, Wm. R. McCauley, Patrick J. Con- 
way, Denis Kerwick, Michael T. Sharkey, James G. Dyer, T. J. Smith, 
Luke C. Quinn, P. J. Connolly, Lieut.-Col. Edward Duft'y and Major 
McCarthy of the 69th Regt. and many others. 

General 'Beirne in introducing the orator of the evening made a 
strong and eloquent speech explaining the aims and objects of the 
Clan-na-Gael. He was vigorously applauded throughout. 



BOURKE COCKRAn'S GREAT SPEECH. 

Mr. Cockran was received with an outburst of enthusiasm such as 
is seldom witnessed, the vast audience rising to its feet and waving 
hats and handkerchiefs. When the applause had subsided he spoke 
as follows: 

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. I have recently heard it 
proclaimed, and we all have heard it proclaimed, v/ith vociferous una- 
nimity, by the supporters of the present English Government, that the 
Irish National movement was dead. If any person, friend or foe, has 
been misled by that statement, a glimpse of this meeting would dispel 
his misapprehensions, and at the same time enable him to appreciate 
the depth of those springs from which Irish patriotism is fed. 

As we survey this meeting we realize that the soil which has been 
stained with the blood of patriots is sown with dragon 's teeth, and will 
yet yield armed men to strike vehement blows at the pov/er of the 
tyrant. (Applause.) x\s we realize that all over the world similar 
gatherings are applauding the same sentiments, singing the same 
songs, honoring the same memory, we know that Robert Emmet, in his 
grave, is a more powerful force for Irish emancipation than serried 
hosts in the field. (Applause.) In this aspect this celebration is with- 
out parallel among the solemnities or festivals of mankind. It awak- 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions . 813 

ens memories which are corroding', it inspires hopes which are sub- 
lime; it recalls a tragedy unutterably sad, it expresses a purpose 
inflexibly stern; it typifies the history of a long-suffering people, it 
proves the indestructible vitality of an indomitable race. (Applause.) 

We celebrate the birth of a martyr, but the tears that moisten the 
eyes as we think of his fate are dried on the cheeks of Irishmen by the 
burning resolutions which they form above his grave. (Applause.) 
And as we hear the thunders of applause that sweep through this hall, 
while every breeze that blows across the Atlantic is laden with mes- 
sages of sympathy to the Irish race, we know that the interest of the 
world is awakened on this anniversary. We know that in murdering 
Emmet the foreign tyrant showed the extent of his cruelty and the 
limit of his power. He was able to kill the patriot, but he was unable 
to destroy the race from which he sprung, the soil on which he lived, 
or the cause for which he died. (Applause.) We know that the 
attempt to blacken his memory has failed; we know that the judg- 
ment of felony which was rendered against him in the English court 
has been reversed by the judgment of mankind (cries of "Hear, 
hear!") ; that the infamy of his sentence fell only on those who 
pronounced it ; that the rope which strangled him changed the suffer- 
ing patriot into the glorious martyr and the gallows on which he died 
has become the pedestal of an imperishable fame. (Applause.) The 
story of Eobert Emmet's fate is, perhaps, the saddest page among 
human records, yet his life is the most inspiring study in the whole 
range of human biography. 

His execution was not merely a crime of singular atrocity ; it was 
a blunder of unparalleled stupidity. Emmet dying at twenty-four has 
accomplished ten thousand times more than could have been achieved 
by Emmet living for a hundred years. The spectacle of a virtuous 
youth climbing the steps of the gallows; of an orator, whose genius 
should have rendered immense service to mankind, strangled by the 
English hangman; of a patriot, the purity of whose motives never 
had been questioned, butchered in cold blood, revealed to the world 
as no rhetoric could have described it, the atrocious character of a 
system founded in crime and maintained in injustice, which had 
rewards for the corrupt and punishments for the pure; which be- 
stowed coronets upon traitors and the rope on patriots; which raised 
Norbury to the peerage and sent Emmet to the gallows. (Applause.) 

Of Emmet's life, of his personal virtues, of his intellectual at- 
tainments, of his romantic love, of his patriotic purposes, we may not 
speak to-night. Standing at the verge of his grave, while pronounc- 
ing the inspired words which, by attracting the attention of the world 
to his country, have made Ireland's cause the cause of civilization, 
he forbade any one to write his epitaph until his country should have 
taken her place among the nations of the earth. His prohibition to 
write his epitaph carries with it the prohibition to pronounce his 
eulogy. The respect, the affection, the love, the reverence, which every 
Irishman cherishes in his bosom for the memory of Emmet must 
remain without expression until the foundation of his monument can 
be laid in the free soil of an emancipated Ireland. (Applause.) But 
though we may not pronounce his eulogy, the suggestion of the dis- 
tinguished gentleman who presides here to-night is singularly apposite. 
We may consider how far Irishmen have discharged the trust which 
he has committed to their hands; we may measure the distance which 
still separate^ Ireland from those happier conditions under which 



S14 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Emmet's monument may be raised to heaven amid the enthusiastic 
applause of his own race and amid the respectful sympathy of the 
civilized world. 

"Vlliat, then, is the condition of Ireland to-day? Is the boast of 
her enemies well founded, that the Irish National movement is dead ; 
that there is not sufficient patriotic spirit among the Irish people even 
to compel a union of the warring factions into which the Parliamen- 
tary party has degenerated? Now, bear in mind that I criticise no 
man or set of men. At this distance it is impossible to say whether 
these quarrels, which we all deplore, are chargeable to any one faction, 
or whether they spring from conditions to which all factions have 
contributed. I content myself with stating the indisputable fact that 
factions do exist; that the strength of the party in Parliament has 
been weakened by them and that English statesmen have been en- 
couraged by these divisions to contemptuously reject Ireland's peti- 
tion for redress. Thus we have seen, within a few days in the House 
of Commons, a Home Rule amendment rejected by a majority of 115. 
We have seen a petition for the release of the political prisoners and 
several other measures for the relief of the Irish people rejected by 
about the same vote. And yet, notwithstanding these discouraging 
circumstances, I decline to regard this Parliamentary majority as 
any indication even of English opinion to-day. I do not believe that 
the defeat of the Liberal party at the polls, the induction into office 
of a Tory government, backed by a large Tory majority, are in- 
superable obstacles in the pathway of Irish progress, but, with proper 
leadership, I believe they may be made the stepping stone by which 
Ireland can climb to independence. (Applause.) 

It is frequently said that, in all discussions of Irish questions by 
Irishmen, there is such a tendency to rhetorical exaggeration that 
their statements do not furnish solid foundations for safe conclusions. 
Deeply sensible, therefore, that accuracy and moderation of statement 
are of vital importance to the value of anything which I may say, I 
express the belief that within the lifetime of this generation the eman- 
cipation of Ireland will be an accomplished fact, because invincible 
forces are working to accomplish it. (Applause.) Now, I base that 
belief, first, on my conviction that England herself will soon realize 
that her own pathway to safety, amid the dangers and perils which 
encompass her, lies through a policy of reparation and justice to 
Ireland; and, second, on my belief that if England remains blind to 
her own interests, and deaf to the voice of justice, then the civilized 
world will compel her to make that reparation which an enlightened 
policy would prompt her to make spontaneously and freely. (Ap- 
plause.) 

We see the whole world united to-day in a spirit of hostility and 
opposition to England, which not only prevents any extension of her 
influence and power, but which actually threatens the integrity of her 
empire. But a few weeks ago, when the President of the United 
States intervened in a dispute between her and a South American 
republic (applause) with whose boundaries, I do not believe, one of 
our citizens in ten thousand was familiar, the American people with 
one voice rose in support of his action, and his message to Congress 
was the most popular measure in his whole administration. (Ap- 
plause.) The German Emperor cast diplomatic etiquette to the winds 
in his haste to express satisfaction at the defeat of an English 
marauding force which had iavaded a South African republic, (Ap- 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 815 

plause.) Wherever she has attempted to extend her power, there the 
world has arisen in protest against it. (Cries of "Hear! hear!") 
Now, why is England universally disliked ? Why stands she encircled, 
by the confession of her own statesmen, with enemies everywhere? 
Why is she overhung with a black cloud of distrust, from which at any 
moment may leap the lightning flash of destructive war? It is be- 
cause she has violated the moral law. It is because she stands dis- 
credited before the world by her treatment of Ireland ; it is because 
the world judges of her policy by its fruits ; and where they see ruin, 
desolation and hatred among the governed, they know the government 
must be oppressive, tyrannical and unjust. (Applause.) In vain she 
boasts that Canada is loyal, that Australia is attached to the British 
Crown. The world knows that in these countries she is jealously 
excluded from any participation in their internal affairs, and that 
her part in their government is simply to provide for their defense 
against foreign aggression. But in Ireland, where her control of the 
government is complete, absolute and unchallenged the world sees the 
fruits of her policy to weaker and dependent nations, and judges her 
by them. As they behold the severity with which every display of 
natural feeling is suppressed in the one place where she has been able 
to proscribe patriots, American citizens feel that if the fortunes of 
war had delivered these colonies helpless into her power, she would 
have cemented her conquest of them by the blood of the patriotic and 
the brave; that here, too, she would have made the hangman the 
exponent of her policy, and the gibbet the bulwark of her authority. 
(Applause.) 

Now, this universal hatred of England, which defeats her diplo- 
macy, thwarts her policy and threatens her interests everywhere, is 
not the work of Irishmen. They have contributed to it, but they have 
not made it. It rests on a broader foundation than Irish resentment 
for English oppression. It rests upon the hatred of injustice which 
is instinctive among civilized men. It rests upon the opposition to 
tyranny for its own sake, no matter what the theatre on which that 
tyranny may have been displayed. (Applause.) Does anybody sup- 
pose that if a question under the Monroe Doctrine arose between this 
country and France or Germany or Russia, the people of the United 
States would show a passionate eagerness for war with either of those 
countries? America will maintain the Monroe Doctrine against any 
country in the world, or all the countries in the world combined (ap- 
plause) ; but while she would maintain it, if occasion arose, against 
these other countries with firmness, every person in the United States 
would regret and deplore a condition which might embroil us with 
them. Does anybody suppose that if England to-day stood before the 
world exercising a beneficent influence everywhere, using all the power 
of her immense capital to promote the welfare of all the people who 
speak her language, that it would be popular in the United States to 
threaten her security? Does anybody believe that if Mr. Gladstone's 
Home Rule bill had become a law and England to-day were loyally 
engaged in an effort to bury the wretched recollections of centuries 
under new measures of reparation, and to open up before the people 
of both countries a future of peace, of promise and of prosperity, that 
the American people would welcome a war that would interrupt the 
recuperative progress of the Irish people? (Applause.) When we re- 
flect on what England's condition is, owing to this policy of ruin in 
Ireland, and what her condition might be, if, with clean hands, she 



816 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

stood before the world upon the services which she has rendered to 
humanity elsewhere, is it extravagant or unreasonable to express the 
hope that some time or other even Englishmen will realize that injus- 
tice does not pay, and that reparation must be made for every viola- 
tion of the moral law by nations as well as by individuals. (Ap- 
plause.) 

But assuming that ojugland does not of her own accord and for her 
own sake adopt that policy of justice in which she will find her own 
security, then I believe that the civilized world will make the cause of 
Ireland the cause of civilization, Ireland, by the political conditions 
under which she was compelled to exist, is unable to make the contri- 
bution to the sum of human wealth which the natural genius of her 
people and the natural advantages of her soil show that Providence in- 
tended she should make. Just as soon as civilization understands that 
the paralysis of Irish industry is due to political causes, those causes 
will be overthrown. The question will then no longer be a question 
between Ireland and England, but between England and the whole 
civilized world. The growth of inventions, the spread of intelligence, 
has led men to realize that their interests are not bounded by their 
geographical frontiers ; that every man who toils and breathes is inter- 
ested in the condition of every foot of the earth 's surface. Everything 
that affects the supply of commodities in the world affects you and 
affects me. Every ear of corn that is produced by the earth affects the 
price of bread to you and to me and to every human being in all the 
world. The exercise of my trade concerns not me alone and depends 
not alone on me. If I be engaged in the manufacture of tables, I can- 
not proceed with my work until I secure tools and lumber, which must 
be prepared by other hands, and as I must exchange the product of 
my labor for the things which I need, I must sell my tables for the 
clothes that will keep me warm, for the shoes that will protect my 
feet, the food that will nourish me, the roof which will shelter me. I 
am, therefore, deeply interested in the production of wool, the prepa- 
ration of hides, the quarrying of stone, the garnering of corn, the 
felling of trees everywhere upon the globe. No one man stands alone. 
Each one depends upon all the others. Whatever swells the sup- 
ply of commodities in one place, stimulates industrial activity else- 
where. An increase in production anywhere, v/hether it comes from 
better natural conditions, a more intelligent cultivation of the soil, or 
the reduction to cultivation of lands formerly left untilled, increases 
the price of labor and stimulates prosperity everywhere, A large crop 
means that more houses must be built to store it ; it means that more 
lines of railroad must be constructed to accommodate it ; it means that 
more ships must be used to transport it, and more machinery to manu- 
facture it ; it means a .larger demand for labor and consequently an 
increase in the rate of wages. On the other hand, where from natural 
or political causes there is a diminished production anywhere, it means 
that empty cars will be switched upon side tracks ; that idle ships will 
be tied to docks ; that the manufacturer will reduce his output every- 
where; laborers will be discharged, and the rate of wages will fall. 
Thus we see the interests of the whole world are closely intertwined. 
The farmer at his plow in the Minnesota wheat field, the weaver at the 
English loom, the mechanic in the German workshop, the laborer in 
the French vineyard, the sailor climbing the masthead upon the At- 
lantic billow, the diver exploring the sunken wreck, the carrier who 
transports a crop to market, the clerk who keeps an account of it, the 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 817 

merchant who sells it, the consumer who buys it — each depends on all 
the others for the reward of his industry — all are elements in one 
mighty scheme of industrial co-operation, which we call commerce, 
and commerce is civilization. (Applause.) 

Political institutions which prevent a country with great natural 
advantages from contributing to the industrial resources of mankind 
are a bar to human progress, the overthrow of which is essential to the 
prosperity of the world. Ireland, with a fertile soil, instead of being 
an active agent in promoting the comfort of man, is a mendicant in the 
family of nations. The effect of Ireland's exclusion from active par- 
ticipation in the industrial co-operation of men may be measured in 
some degree, by considering the results to us here ; if France or Ger- 
many should suddenly become sterile and unproductive ; or, if its con- 
tribution to our commerce should be reduced one-half. If our trade 
with France, for instance, were seriously diminished, land in this city 
would decline in value, the price of everything elsewhere would de- 
cline, vast numbers of laborers would be discharged, the humblest 
toiler would find his means of sustenance imperiled, and the proudest 
millionaire would be on the brink of ruin. The world can easily un- 
derstand what would be the effect on its condition if France or Ger- 
many or England or any of the great productive nations were reduced 
to industrial prostration, and the world will some day learn what it 
loses by Ireland's failure to contribute to the sum of human wealth all 
that its fertile soil could produce and all that the wonderful commer- 
cial genius of its people could accomplish, if they were afforded the 
protection of free institutions. (Applause.) The apologists for Eng- 
lish rule in Ireland realize that a government which blights the 
prosperity of the governed is indefensible, and they attempt to tell us 
that Ireland 's condition is not due to political causes ; that it is due to 
some inherent vice or defect in the Irish character. If that assertion 
were true, two conclusions would necessarily flow from it : It would 
prove, first, that the Irish race was worthless, and that it would be a 
gain to the world if they were sunk under the Atlantic. Butj even if 
that be so, it would only furnish an additional reason why England, 
for her own sake, should abandon any further attempt to control a 
government which she could not administer successfully. Whatever 
Ireland's condition may be, England controls her government. Now, 
by the declaration of England's representative body, when King 
James II was driven from the country, the basis of loyalty to the 
throne was declared to be the reciprocal obligation of the King to 
protect the subject; that is to say, the business of government was 
to protect the 'governed. The merits of a government are to be 
judged by the condition of the governed. If, therefore, England's 
contention be true, that this deplorable industrial condition of Ireland 
is due to causes which can neither be remedied nor mitigated by 
government, then the quicker she leaves the island the better for her 
own reputation, and we will take the chances on its being better for 
Ireland. (Applause.) 

But, ladies and gentlemen, the statement is not true. The con- 
ditions which have produced Ireland's industrial prostration are as 
plain and as easily ascertained as anything within the experience of 
mankind; Ireland's industrial condition is due to her political condi- 
tions. While they continue she can never recover prosperity. It is 
idle to talk of beneficial legislation ; idle to talk of remedial measures 
by an English Parliament. The cause of Ireland's industrial decay 



818 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

is an alien government, and while an alien government lasts, that 
decay must always be progressive, growing worse from day to day. 
(Applause.) Bearing always in mind the necessity for moderation 
of statement, let us look at the nature of English rule in Ireland, 
according to E!ngiish authorities, and the ruin of the Irish people will 
be at once explained. The true reason for Ireland's prostration is 
lack of capital. Without capital production is impossible. Under her 
present political conditions Ireland every year is drained of the 
capital essential to industrial activity, and while those conditions 
exist it is plain that the drain must continue. 

Now if I may again use the table before me by way of illustration 
let us assume that I am still engaged in the manufacture of tables. 
Without capital I can do nothing. Capacity or willingness to work 
will of itself avail me nothing. To make my labor effective I must 
have lumber and I must have tools. But labor and tools are capital. 
Whatever a person works on or works with is capital. Labor in con- 
nection with capital makes wealth. If I have sufficient tools and 
lumber to produce five hundred tables in a year, and four hundred be 
sufficient to support me, it follows that I will have one hundred tables 
left over, and those one hundred tables, or the proceeds of them, will 
be available next year to increase my productive capacity. With thera 
I may buy new machinery, I may buy new tools, or I may hire extra 
help, and the following year my production will be so far increased 
that I may produce six hundred tables. If my wants remain the same, 
I will then have two hundred tables with which to still further broaden 
the scope of my industry. Each successive year will witness a still 
larger addition to my product, and consequently my productive effi- 
ciency will steadily increase. Now, the capital of a country is the sum 
of the capital owned by all the individvials who constitute its popu- 
lation. It is that portion of its product which is left over after the 
wants of all the people have been supplied. Under normal conditions, 
under honest government, that capital, year after year is a growing 
quantity, and as it grows it takes the form of houses, of fences^ of 
machinery, of locomotives, of live stock and of all the elements of 
property which constitute prosperity, and which are essential to the 
development of new and diversified industries. 

In Ireland, since the conquest, there has never been an oppor- 
tunity for capital to grow. In the beginning the conquest was simply 
pillage. The Norman invaders were granted lands, not for the pur- 
pose of conciliating the Irish race, but for the purpose of exterminat- 
ing them. Those of them who settled upon the soil yielded to that 
extraordinary fascination which the Irish people have always exercised 
over those who came in direct contact with them. They married Irish 
wives, they spoke the Irish language, they adopted Irish customs — • 
they become more Irish than the Irish themselves. (Applause.) 
Against that irresistible tendency to assimilation with the natives the 
whole power and policy of England were steadily exercised. Thus, 
in the reign of King Eiehard II., a statute was passed by which any 
member of the English colony was absolutely prohibited from marry- 
ing an Irish woman, and every English family was prohibited from 
putting a child to foster with an Irish family. When repressive stat- 
utes, threats and rewards all proved unavailing to keep the two races 
apart, the torch of destruction was kindled, the sword of war was 
drawn, and a ruthless persecution was instituted against the English 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 819 

settlers as well as against the native Irish. These wars were not con- 
tests such as were engaged in by civilized men. 

From purely English sources they have been characterized as 
more bloodthirsty than any which disgraced any tribe of savages that 
ever fed upon the bodies of their victims. (Applause.) Thus, during 
Elizabeth's war against the Geraldines, English authorities tell us the 
whole Province of Munster was laid waste, so that the lowing of a cow 
could not be heard within its limits, and Spencer, the author of the 
"Faerie Queene," says that the people were reduced to such awful 
starvation that at night they escaped from the woods and morasses in 
which they had taken refuge from the English armies during the day 
to feed upon decaying carrion. During her war against O'Neill, 
Essex, who conducted himself like a civilized soldier, was withdrawn 
from command and sent to the scaffold — sent to the scaffold for his 
clemency — sent to the scaffold because he observed the laws of civil- 
ized war — and Mountjoy was placed at the head of the English forces 
in Ulster. According to his own reports, according to English author- 
ities, he deliberately destroyed every living thing in the province — 
burning every blade of grass down to the sod. Thus, at the end of 
the sixteenth century, we find Ireland's industrial condition worse 
than it was in the eleventh. 

The capital available to-day m England and in Germany and in 
France for the productive energies of these countries has been the ac- 
cumulation of many centuries. The volume of its capital always bears 
a proportion to the tranquillity which each country has enjoyed and to 
the commercial capacities of its people. Those 500 years, which in 
other countries were years of advancement, years of preparation for 
the great industrial development of the nineteenth century, in Ireland 
were years of devastation, years of destruction, years of retrogression, 
years which prepared the conditions from which she is suffering to-day 
— yet Englishmen tell us that Ireland's distress is not the result of 
political conditions. But England's hostility to Ireland did not end 
with Elizabeth. It did not end with the massacre of Munster or the 
pillage of Ulster. After her death James the First initiated the scheme 
of confiscations, which thenceforward became the settled policy of 
England. Taking advantage of what is kno'wn as the "Flight of the 
Earls," he claimed that the whole of Ulster belonged to them, seized 
their lands on an accusation of treason and settled them with Scotch 
families. Cromwell adopted that policy and amplified it. He confis- 
cated all the lands lying east of the Shannon, after he had put the 
people of the most populous cities in the country to the sword and 
moved the whole native Irish population west of the Shannon. Wil- 
liam the Third took almost every acre that had been restored to the 
native Irish under Charles the Second's act of settlement; and the 
penal laws of Queen Anne, by prohibiting any Catholic from owning 
land or even from renting it, except for a very brief term of years, re- 
sulted in transferring the whole soil of Ireland to strangers. These 
grants were made in huge tracts to comparatively few individuals. 
They were granted to some for services rendered in the field ; to some 
as a reward for persecutions of the Irish, to others for causes which 
cannot be described before this assemblage. The beneficiaries of 
these grants did not take with them any idea of settling on the land, 
and cultivating it. They continued to live in England. They allowed 
the original owners to come back and occupy the land as tenants at 
will. 



820 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

Everything which the soil produced, except the barest pittance al- 
lowed for the support of the tenant, was confiscated in the form of 
rents. The Irish soil is held to-day by titles based on this system of 
conjfiscation. The landlords were absentees when the lands were 
granted to them ; they are absentees now. The product of Irish indus- 
try has not been reinvested in the soil, but for over two hundred years 
has been taken abroad and used to support the state of English castles 
or the opulence of residences in London. It has been dissipated and 
squandered in the haunts of folly and vice; and while the political 
system remains which has produced these economic conditions, no rem- 
edy for them is possible. But that is not all. Ireland suffers to-day 
not only from alien ownership of the land, but from the consequences 
of trade laws so barbarously unjust that it is difficult to believe they 
ever formed a feature of the legislation of a Christian country. (Ap- 
plause.) When English critics say that Ireland is incapable of in- 
dustrial progress, they do violence to all the facts of history as at- 
tested by their own historians. Wherever Ireland has had the benefit 
of equal conditions, she has defied industrial competition. In the 
three great elements of industry — agriculture, ship-building and 
woolen manufactures — Ireland during the seventeenth century fairly 
outstripped England. Irish cattle and horses commanded the high- 
est prices in the English market, when, by a statute of King Charles 
II, their exportation to England was positively prohibited, and all the 
Irish capital invested in that form of agriculture, was destroyed al- 
most in a night. I think the actual figures to which it was reduced 
was one-seventh of its former volume. The Irish people in the sev- 
enteenth century had outstripped the English in ship-building. The 
Irish fishermen were the hardiest sailors that sailed the deep. The 
carrying trade of the world was largely maintained in Irish vessels, 
and particularly the carrying trade to these colonies, when suddenly 
Ireland was exempted from the operation of the navigation laws, 
which meant that no cargo could be taken into an Irish harbor until 
it had first been sent to an English port and then transshipped in an 
English bottom. It is needless to say that the budding Irish ship- 
building industry perished under this treatment as the blossoms per- 
ish under a frost. The woolen industry, as far back as the time of 
King Charles I, was the strongest industry of its kind in Europe. 
Irish wool was the best for woolen manufactures that was raised any- 
where in the world. 

In the reign of William III. an act was passed absolutely prohibit- 
ing woolen manufactures in Ireland. Remember this was not a mere 
protective measure, shutting Irish woolen manufactures out of the 
English markets. It was a direct, positive, brutal prohibition from all 
manufacture, and added to it was a clause which prohibited the Irish 
from exporting wool to any country in the world except England. It 
was supposed that the Irish farmer would, of course, go on raising 
wool, and it was believed that this legislation, by compelling him to 
send it to the English market, would force him to sell it to the English 
manufacturer at any price which that manufacturer chose to put 
upon it. The demand for Irish wool, however, was active in Prance 
and in the low countries. The Irish farmer, prohibited by law from 
selling his wool where he could obtain the best price for it, proceeded 
in spite of the law to sell it in the most advantageous markets. The 
result was a gigantic system of smuggling. The whole trade of Ire- 
land became contraband. But a contraband trade cannot avail itself 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 821 

of those systems of excliange by which a cargo of commodities sent 
to one port can be exchanged for commodities in a far distant city. 
Of course, I need not explain to this audience that under the operation 
of commercial customs and trade laws, if I sell a cargo of corn in the 
city of New York to a Liverpool merchant, I get paid for it by a draft 
on London, and with that draft I can buy a cargo of Japanese curi- 
osities in Tokio. Thus, without leaving the city of New York, and 
without sending anything to Japan, I can exchange my commodities 
against Japanese products. But the Irish, who during all this period 
were unable to use bills of exchange because their trade was contra- 
band, were driven to a simple system of barter. 

The only commodities for which they could exchange their wool 
in France were wines and spirits. For every cargo of wool tiiat went 
out a cargo of spirits was returned. The use of liquor grew enor- 
mously under such conditions, because increase of supply always in- 
creases consumption. The poor, always quick to imitate the example 
of their wealthier neighbors, unable to obtain the finer liquors im- 
ported from France, were soon gratified by a coarser article manu- 
factured at home. Commerce cannot be long maintained by a system 
of barter, and in time this contraband trade declined and perished, 
but not until it had established that reign of intemperance through- 
out Ireland which has cursed her for the last 200 years. (Applause.) 
And when Englishmen tell us, as they do, when they taunt us with 
the reproach that the only substantial returns which Ireland makes 
to the imperial exchequer are the proceeds of the whiskey-tax, we can 
say to them if the curse of this intemperance be Ireland's the shame 
of it is England's. (Applause.) 

Now, let any man familiar with the first principles of political 
economy explain to me how trade can revive in a country where man- 
ufactures have been suppressed throughout the period during which 
in other countries they contributed to these accumulations of capital 
on which their industries now depend; where the political conditions 
exhaust the soil of everything that it produces; where the absentee 
landlord and the alien government draw from the people in the forms 
of rent and taxation everything in the nature of a surplus product. 
The laws and the government of Ireland would reduce any country in 
the world to poverty and distress. As we consider the ferocious spirit 
in which they were conceived, the pitiless cruelty with which they 
were enforced, we marvel not at the poverty of Ireland but at the 
survival of the Irish race. Looking at that picture, and realizing 
the steady advance of civilization throughout the world, I feel per- 
suaded the government whose existence is an injury and whose laws 
are an outrage upon a helpless people will not be permitted to con- 
tinue indefinitely. (Applause.) 

It is said — and said with truth — ^that during the period which I 
have described, Ireland had a separate Parliament, and that many of 
those restrictive and penal laws to which I have referred were enacted 
by the Irish Parliament. But it must be remembered, in the first 
place, that until 1782 the Irish Parliament was not an independent 
body; and, in the second place, it never was a representative body. 
As far back as the time of King Henry the Seventh, by a law which 
was known as Ponying 's act, the Irish Parliament was prohibited from 
passing any measure until the heads of it had been approved by the 
English Council, and in the reign of King George the English Par- 
liament claimed the right to legislate directly for Ireland at its dis- 



822 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

cretion. With these two acts controlling the Irish Parliament it is 
plain that its powers of legislation were too limited to merit serious 
discussion. 

The Irish Parliament, moreover, was never elected by the Irish 
people. It was elected by what is known as the English colony in Ire- 
land, which amounted to about one-fifth of the whole population. It 
was composed of landlords whose title to their lands depended upon 
these confiscations which have been the root of Ireland's misery. 
Their interests, their faith, their prejudices, were all supposed to set 
them firmly against the Irish people, and to make them a bulwark of 
English authority. Yet that alien legislature yielded to the same in- 
fluence which had formerly made Irish patriots out of Norman con- 
querors, and ultimately became a patriotic body. Behind the guns of 
the volunteers they demanded legislative independence for Ireland. 
(Applause.) England conceded to fear what she had refused to 
justice. Ponying 's act, and the act of George the First, were both 
repealed, and from out of the wreck and ruin, the misery and dark- 
ness of centuries, a new Ireland emerged, glorious, resplendent; fac- 
ing the future calmly, confident ; saluted in the old Parliament House 
on College Green with the words ''Esto Perpetua" from the lips of 
Henry Grattan. (Applause.) 

Nothing in history, nothing in the pages of the Arabian Nights 
describing sudden changes from poverty to affluence equals the trans- 
formation which clothed Ireland in a garb of radiant prosperity im- 
mediately after her independence was recognized. Everywhere new 
factories started into existence. Everywhere labor was actively em- 
ployed. The fields cultivated with spirit yielded generous harvests 
to hopeful industry. Dublin became a capital of refinement, of opu- 
lence and of elegance. The Parliament itself became a theatre in 
which statesmanship exhibited its resources, while its debates adorned 
by the eloquence of Grattan and of Flood, of Plunkett and of Pon- 
sonby, of Hussey-Burgh and of Curran were an intellectual display 
which dazzled that generation, and which left monuments of exceed- 
ing beauty to fascinate forever the students of English literature. 
(Applause.) I shall not attempt to describe the industrial revival 
which accompanied the recognition of Irish independence. Suffice 
it to say that in the eighteen years during which it lasted, notwith- 
standing a bloody rebellion, notwithstanding a massacre of the people 
in which were sacrificed the lives of sixty or seventy thousand persons, 
notwithstanding a heavy tide of emigration from political persecu- 
tions, the population of Ireland actually doubled. Yet thoughtless 
people, echoing the baseless English slander, say that the Irish are not 
fit for self-government. Show me in all the history of the world 
fruits of independence and liberty equal to these. A country which 
had lain prostrate in the dust for nearly eight centuries, a country 
which had been ravaged first by Dane then by Norman, a country 
whose manufactures had been suppressed, a country which for gener- 
ations had been deprived of the products of her soil by foreign land- 
lords — at the first dawn of liberty sprang to her feet, and during 
eighteen years stood before the world, a living industrial force of 
wonderful achievement and still more wonderful promise. The eco- 
nomic value of freedom to Ireland was not more strikingly shown 
by the fruits of independence than by the consequences of political 
enslavement. The industrial revival, which followed 1782, was ar- 
rested in 1801 — ^the commercial prosperity of the country was para- 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 823 

lyzed by the Act of Union. Since the loss of her independence Ire- 
land has been steadily declining and decaying, morally and materi- 
ally. The restoration of her liberty is the only remedy that will 
restore her prosperity. (Applause.) 

It is often said that the condition of Ireland is beyond the com- 
prehension of ordinary men, yet I may state as a fact, which no man 
^yho examines the subject will question, that if the same political con- 
ditions existed in Long Island or in the most thriving section of New 
York State, or in the fertile valley of the Scioto, where the rising river 
fertilizes the fields every year without any exercise of human labor, 
a condition of distress and industrial prostration would overtake 
these favored regions as bad as that which afflicts Ireland, for the 
inevitable fruits of an alien government are ruin and decay. 

It is a mistake to assume, as English apologists tell us, that the 
Irish people are attempting to establish a separate government. Ire- 
land has a separate government now. There never was a union of 
governments between England and Ireland. (Applause.) The Gov- 
ernment of Ireland is now and always has been entirely separate from 
the Government of Great Britain. A separate Executive exists in 
Dublin Castle. The jurisdiction of the English courts does not run 
to Ireland. Ireland has a separate judiciary, a separate system of 
laws, a separate system of local government, a separate system of 
taxation. Irishmen demand the control of that government, and they 
will never be satisfied until they have secured it. (Applause.) They 
demand that laws affecting Ireland shall be framed by a Parliament 
sitting in Ireland. They demand that these laws shall be adminis- 
tered by an executive sworn to protect Irish interests, to promote Irish 
industry, to defend Irish independence. (Applause.) While the 
government of Ireland is administered in England, every motive 
that can animate the human mind operates to draw from Ireland 
the capital which it produces — the very flower of its moral and intel- 
lectual forces. Every man, who is in any way interested in the ope- 
ration of the government, whether it be in the construction of a bridge 
across a river, in the improvement of a harbor, in the administration 
of a custom house, in the establishment of a post-office, and who 
wishes to make personal representations to the authorities, must spend 
more or less time in England, and thus contribute to the growth and 
opulence of London. A young man anxious to secure a field in which 
to display his talent, must go to the seat of government, where the 
prizes of intellectual competitions are to be won — ^toward which all 
interests are inevitably drawn. If a man be a worthless and vicious 
member of the absentee landlord class, he will naturally take up his 
residence in those cities where life is made attractive to the profligate 
and amusing to the idle. Thus ambition and idleness, industry and 
profligacy, vice and virtue, all combine to draw from Ireland the 
product of her soil, and the men of talent for whose capacity she 
can furnish no field, on whose industry she can bestow no reward. 
(Applause.) How can prosperity be revived under such conditions? 
What prospect but one of misery can ever confront the Irish people 
while they are held in subjection to a government which could not be 
just if it tried to be? 

The best government that ever existed within the limits of its own 
country, when it extends its authority to another nation, against the 
protest of that nation, becomes by that act oppressive, confiscatory, 
UQJustj immoral, reprehensible and indefensible. (Applause.) Na? 



824 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

tions are like families, for a nation is but the aggregation of the fam- 
ilies that constitute it. Now, will anybody pretend that it would be a 
justifiable system of laws which would allow a member of one family 
to interfere with the affairs of another family? The very essence 
of the family relation is the right to control its own private affairs. 
"Will anybody pretend that because one man may be successful in 
business, or skillful in the management of the young, it would be 
justifiable for that reason to allow him to control the family affairs 
of another man less capable perhaps to instruct his children or less 
prosperous in his worldly affairs ? Suppose the English Colonial Sec- 
retary to be more affectionate in his disposition, more capable in busi- 
ness matters than the Prime Minister, could anybody on that ground 
defend a law that would authorize Mr. Chamberlain to interfere in 
the management of Lord Salisbury's family? (Hisses.) Now, what 
would be immoral and improper in the government of families is 
more immoral and more improper in the government of nations, for 
it extends a vicious principle over a wider area. 

A government that operates outside of its own country cannot 
possibly be beneficent. In the nature of things it cannot be efficient. 

All law is but public opinion. No law is enforceable that does not 
conform to the customs and the opinions of the people affected by it. 
But where the body which legislates for a country sits in another 
country it cannot understand and therefore it cannot obey the opin- 
ion of the people who will be affected by its enactments. It therefore 
lacks the first essential capacity for effective legislation. The Legis- 
lature of one country can no more legislate properly for another coun- 
try than an organ in the human body can operate effectively if it be 
displaced. 

To say that a country can be prosperous with its affairs adminis- 
tered in a city outside of its limits is as absurd as to say that a man 
could be prudent and healthy if his brains were outside of his head. 
(Laughter and applause.) Now, we have heard it said recently that 
Mr. Balfour contemplates a measure of comprehensive relief to the 
Irish people. (Hisses.) I think it has been prophesied that it would 
be a very generous measure. Now, no government can be generous 
and just at the same time. A government can bestow nothing of its 
own, because it can create nothing. A government cannot create a 
blade of grass ; it cannot make a table out of lumber ; it cannot form 
a chair out of wood. What it gives it must take. Where, therefore, 
it is generous to one person, it must be oppressive to another. The 
most that the best government can do is justice. But an alien gov- 
ernment cannot even be just, because if it ever rose to the plane where 
justice would control its operations its very first application of 
its own principles would be to abolish itself. (Laughter.) A gov- 
ernment which is administered in a foreign city, not being subject 
to the opinion of the country whose welfare its legislation affects, is 
a monstrosity in this age. It is not necessary to condemn each act 
of its existence in order to condemn the principle that underlies it. 
It is sufficient to say that it is an alien institution to render its exis- 
tence indefensible, its operation as unjustifiable as an attempt by 
one man to correct the child of another man. 

We have often heard it said that the Irish are not obedient to 
law. Why should they be obedient to it? (Applause and laughter.) 
No law has ever commanded respect unless it was founded upon jus- 
tice. There has not been a law enacted in Ireland in nearly seven 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 825 

centuries that was conceived in justice. During that period every 
enactment of the English Government was deliberately framed for 
the purpose of injuring Irish interests, and avowedly so. The Eng- 
lish rulers have never made any pretense that they were administer- 
ing the government of Ireland in the interest of the governed. They 
acknowledge that the whole scope and purpose of their policy was 
repression of trade and of national feeling. Injustice framed in stat- 
utes does not become justice. Laws framed by an alien body may be 
executed by force, but they have no moral binding effect upon the 
people of another country. Suppose a neighbor forced his way into 
the house of a parent in order to chastise his son. No matter what 
that son may have done, the supreme impulse of the parent would be 
to defend the integrity of his family and to eject the intruder. By 
that time that the process of ejection was complete, it is not likely 
the head of the household would have much desire or energy left for 
disciplinary purposes in his own family. (Laughter.) His resent- 
ment at the attempt of an intruder to usurp his powers over his child 
would make the father indulgent to his offspring, even though, under 
other circumstances, he would be prompt to punish him. The whole 
history of Ireland is the history of another country attempting to ad- 
minister its justice, attempting to make its laws, intruding into its 
family affairs. Every impulse that animates the human breast rises 
in revolt against usurpation, whatever form it may assume, and the 
very spirit of independence, which is the safest bulwark of order, 
makes the Irishman not the enemy of natural law, but the enemy of 
English law. (Applause.) 

I have thought it wise to place before this audience, and so far as 
I may, before the American people, the economic feature of this Irish 
question, because it has seldom been discussed, and until that aspect 
of the subject be properly understood the Emmet movement can 
never be fully appreciated. There has been a rather general tendency 
to consider him whose memory we are celebrating to-night as a knight- 
errant rash and foolish, who raised an insurrection which was unjus- 
tifiable, but who bore his fate so bravely and so well that the folly of 
his adventure was redeemed. That view of Emmet is a grievous mis- 
take. Emmet's movement was a protest against political conditions 
the fruits of which were not then apparent, but which he foresaw. 
He realized that the destruction of Irish independence meant not 
merely an outrage upon national sentiment, but the industrial ruin of 
the country. He foresaw the dreary years of decay and ruin which 
have since passed into history. His insurrection was a protest against 
a policy then in its initial stages, which has since proved injurious 
to the civilized world, dangerous to England and ruinous to Ireland. 
When the world understands the effects of English law upon Ireland's 
economic conditions, when it realizes what humanity had lost by the 
decay of Irish industry, Emmet will cease to be considered the mere 
head of an Irish riotous movement, and he will be recognized every- 
where as the apostle of progress and the martyr of civilization. (Ap- 
plause. 

How long do you suppose the world, after it understands this sub- 
ject, will permit the existence of these conditions, which Emmet at- 
tempted to overthrow? How long will England continue blindly and 
stupidly to injure herself by persisting in this fatal attempt to effect 
the conquest of Ireland? What has England gained by it? I vrould 
like to examine the ledger, which shows the profit and the loss arising 



826 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Rose^ 

from her occupancy of Ireland. I Avould like to make up the account 
with any Englishman, however prejudiced, and ascertain just what 
has been the profit to England of her war against the Irish people. 
To narrow the inquiry to a period covered by our own experience, I 
would like to know what England has gained by the denial of Irish 
emancipation during the twenty years which have elapsed since the 
Irish people first demanded legislative autonomy, under the guidance 
and leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell. (Applause.) Why does 
she persist in vainly attempting to maintain this unnatural and 
ruinous connection by force when there might be a durable salutary 
connection of interest between the two countries? I confess I can't 
understand it. 

Englishmen say sometimes that it is necessary to maintain a 
despotic occupation of Ireland for military reasons. That statement 
is absurd. They say that Ireland and England are in such close prox- 
imity that they cannot both be independent. France is closer to Eng- 
land than Ireland, yet France is independent. But they say Ireland 
would welcome a foreign invader in order to injure England. Well 
that is the strongest argument I ever heard for changing the condi- 
tions which have brought about such an extraordinary opinion in 
Ireland. Just conceive what that statement means. Why should Ire- 
land welcome a foreign invader, if it were not that she had less to 
fear from a foreign foe than from the domestic government? (Ap- 
plause.) Does anybody suppose that if Ireland were free and pros- 
perous to-morrow, she would not be as jealous of the integrity of her 
soil as any other country in the world ? Does anybody suppose that 
a prosperous Irishman would want a foreign soldier quartered in his 
house, eating his food, injuring his crops, taking away his horses and 
cattle ? England 's best defence against any danger of that kind is to 
establish in Ireland free institutions which will allow Irishmen to ac- 
cumulate property or to cherish the hope of acquiring property. Ire- 
land, industrious and hopeful, instead of being a rent in England's 
armor, would be a buckler of England's safety. Ireland prosperous 
and contented, — would jealously defend the integrity of her own soil, 
and in defending it she would be the outpost of England's western 
defences, the rampart of England 's security. England relieved of the 
necessity of guarding the Irish coast line would need less battleships 
to defend her own ; England, with less hostile sympathies to apprehend 
from the civilized world, would possess a defensive power greater 
than all the navies which she can build or all the armies which she 
could organize. 

Does England hold Ireland in chains because of sympathy with 
the landlords? I confess I can't understand why an English land- 
lord should have any sympathy whatever with the Irish specimens of 
that order. I have often heard it asked by Americans, Why is land- 
lordism so unpopular in Ireland? Landlordism exists in this coun- 
try, yet nobody shoots landlords from behind hedges. (Laughter and 
applause.) Landlordism exists in England, and there never has been 
any popular uprising against it. But landlordism in England and 
landlordism in Ireland are vastly different institutions. The English 
landlord is a resident of the soil which he owns. He is the head of a 
great industrial force. His tenants are his industrial family. To- 
gether they cultivate the soil. When the crops are harvested they 
divide the product, each taking a portion sufficient to compensate 
<him for the labor which he has expended on the fields. True> the land- 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 827 

lord takes the larger share, but all that remains after his support is 
secured is reinvested in the land for the benefit of all who are inter- 
ested in its cultivation. From time immemorial the chief landlords 
of England have met in London as the great Parliament of the coun- 
try. There they have examined its condition, provided for its sup- 
port and framed laws for its protection. They have always dis- 
charged their public functions with patriotism. In their private re- 
lations they have usually been humane and generous. No English 
landlord would evict a tenant merely to raise his rent ; the public opin- 
ion of England would not tolerate such an act of inhumanity, and 
the public opinion of England has always made the laws which both 
landlord and tenant obey. The Parliament which he established 
became the most efficient, powerful and dignified body in the world. 
lie was always quick to resist any invasion of liberty. He never failed 
to assert the right of the subject against the power of the monarch. 
He sent his sons abroad to observe the institutions of other countries, 
to study their economic conditions, so that when the land passed from 
one landlord to his heir it generally went into the hands of a man 
trained to discharge his public and private duties, who realized his 
responsibility to the State, of which he was a pillar, and to the ten- 
antry who were his industrial family. 

Contrast with landlordism beneficent, liberal, constructive in Eng- 
land, landlordism cruel, oppressive, destructive in Ireland. The 
English landlord was a native product of the English soil. The Irish 
landlord was a poisonous foreign growth, planted by the hand of 
confiscation and maintained by the power of tyranny. (Applause.) 
The English landlord was the friend of his tenantry, the organizer of 
their industry, the champion of their rights. The Irish landlord was 
the foe of his tenants, an injury to their welfare, cruelly restrictive 
of their prosperity by the ruthlessness with which he confiscated the 
fruits of their labor. Planted in robbery, maintained in crime, he 
curses the soil which he pollutes. He is an obstacle to progress, a blot 
on justice. He must be uprooted before the land can support a free, 
a prosperous or a happy people. (Applause.) 

Far be it from me to say that there are not praiseworthy excep- 
tions among Irish landlords. There are a few who live on Irish soil 
and who have been humane and even generous in the treatment of 
their tenants ; but they have been exceptions so rare that their virtues 
have only served to throw into darker shade the depravity of the 
majority. 

But, even from the landlord's point of view, what has England 
gained by this contest waged against the Irish people for the last 
twenty years? Suppose, when Mr. Parnell first unfurled the banner 
of Irish independence, England had conceded his demand, does any- 
body doubt that the condition of the landlords would be vastly better 
than it is to-day? The values in 1875 of agricultural lands were 
nearly twice what they are now. If the landlord in a general settle- 
ment of the Irish question had obtained half the value of his land 
then, he would have received more than the whole of its value now. 
The influence of the landlord has succeeded in delaying any conces- 
sion of legislative independence to Ireland for twenty years, and as 
the result of his folly he is placed in a position where he is compelled 
to witness the prospects of Ireland brightening while his chances of 
compensation are steadily diminishing. I am one of those who believe 
that it would be wise to settle with the landlord on some terms of 



828 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

purchase, and let him go, if by doing so the emancipation of Ireland 
could be promoted and the period of agitation and disturbance 
abridged, just as I think it .would have been wise for this government 
to have bought the emancipation of the slaves, if by so doing it could 
have avoided the sacrifice of human life and treasure entailed on this 
country by the struggle to suppress slavery. But if the land question 
be left open until the right to independence shall have been wrung 
from England, there is no man with less moral claim to compensation 
for any consequences which may flow from a political revolution than 
the landlord who never had a right to the land, who never occupied it, 
who never discharged the duty Vt^hich every landowner owes to the 
country which protects his property and to the people who live upon 
the soil. (Applause.) Thus we see the credit of the English land- 
lord and the interest of the Irish landlord injured by a policy which 
has been maintained largely through the influence of both. 

Is it the security of property in Ulster which Englishmen think 
would be endangered by Irish independence? That is another Eng- 
lish fad, if I may use the expression. We are told that an Irish 
Parliament would render all property in Ulster insecure, and it is 
said that, as Ulster is the garden spot of Ireland, the maintenance of 
its prosperity is of more importance than the happiness of all the 
other Irish provinces. 

If Ulster is more prosperous than the rest of Ireland it is only 
because the linen industry was spared when the woolen industry was 
suppressed. The linen industiy is to-day without a rival anywhere 
in the world because it enjoys the advantage of a peculiar capacity in 
the Ulster soil for the production of flax. But the rest of Ireland had 
a much greater capacity for the production of wool. In the time of 
William III. the woolen industry was far more important than the 
linen industry. Had both industries been left undisturbed, the man- 
ufacture of woolens to-day would be the most important element of 
Irish prosperity, and in every province of Ireland prosperous towns 
would be engaged in placing the product of Irish looms before the 
consumers of the world. But owing to the political conditions, Ulster 
is the most prosperous province in Ireland, and Ulster can serve as an 
" illustration for my proposition that the security of property will not 
be endangered, but protected by the recognition of Irish independ- 
ence. Property in Ulster or elsewhere can be exposed to but one dan- 
ger from government, and that is the danger of confiscation. It is 
said that if the restraining influence of English authority were re- 
moved an Irish government would confiscate property in Ulster by an 
unjust use of the power of taxation. But if all the wealth of Ireland 
be owned by the people of Ulster, and an Irish government should 
confiscate it by taxation, what would be left to support that govern- 
ment after the confiscation had been completed? The slightest re- 
flection should satisfy any one that no Irish government could afford 
to confiscate the property of citizens on whose prosperity its support 
must largely depend. Whoever controlled the government would 
have no more important duty to himself than to carefully conserve 
the industrial conditions which would yield the largest revenue to 
the public treasury. Moreover, the springs of human nature are al- 
ways the same. It is because the Irish have no responsibility for the 
law which exists in Ireland that they have been hostile to its enforce- 
ment._ The nioment a people are made independent they become re- 
sponsible for their own condition. They become obedient to the law 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 829 

because they know they must bear the consequences of their own acts ; 
that they will enjoy the fruits of industry and order ; that they must 
bear the disciplinary results of folly or idleness. Under an inde- 
pendent government, every man in Ireland who owned anj'thing would 
be a force for the preservation of property. If all his possessions 
consisted of a clay pipe, he would probably find some other Irishman 
without a clay pipe anxious to take it away from him. The result 
would be that every possessor of property, from the owner of the 
clay pipe up to the millionaire, would realize that the lav\^ which pro- 
tected the clay pipe was the same law that protected every other form 
of property. The defense of the law would be the business of all who 
were interested in the preservation of property — not merely of those 
who possssed property, but of those who hoped to acquire property. 
And where is the Irishman in whose breast there does not spring 
that hope of success which makes him a triumphant toiler wherever 
he finds a soil to cultivate under the generous light of liberty and 
under the protection of free institutions? (Applause.) 

In the light of these truths surely we may conclude that Irish 
freedom involves no danger to Ulster, and I do not think even an 
Englishman will seriously contend there is any justification for op- 
posing it on military grounds. 

Now let us see just how England has been affected in power and 
prestige by these twenty years of continual struggle. I venture the 
assertion that the Irish patriots, headed by Charles Stewart Parnell, 
(applause), who have waged the battle of Irish emancipation, without 
a single soldier in the field, without money, without arms and much 
of the time confined in English jails have inflicted more damage on 
England than the loss of half her empire. More damage, I repeat, 
than if she had lost half her empire, and I believe I can satisfy any- 
body that my assertion is not an extravagant statement. 

There is a very wide difference of opinion among Englishmen as to 
whether her colonial possessions are of any advantage to the mother 
country ; but there is no doubt about the importance and value to her 
of her own Parliament. England, in the struggle with Ireland, has 
already suffered an abasement of her Parliament which can never be 
recovered; and I venture the statem.ent that, if she does not soon 
concede parliamentary independence to Ireland, she will be forced to 
sacrifice her own parliamentary government. (Applause.) Now let 
us see just on what that statement depends. Ever since the time of 
King Edward I. down to 1870, the English Parliament had existed 
without rules. It was the most efficient legislative body in the world, 
because it had never been found necessary to adopt a rule to repress 
disorder in any form. Its procedure was entirely governed by its 
traditions. Its dignity was in the custody of every member. In an 
evil hour for itself it undertook to pass coercion acts for Ireland, 
and by the time its purpose was accomplished the whole character of 
the House of Commons had been changed. It had established a set 
of rules, which, while they were intended to nullify the opposition 
of the Irish members, are now used every day to restrict the privileges 
of the English members. The Parliament still lives, but the loss of 
its dignity has been the destruction of its outer shell, and the frag- 
ments of that outer shell bestrews the floors of the House of Com- 
mons, trampled under foot- by the Irish patriots in their struggle to 
defend Irish rights. (Applause.) The closure has been imported 
from France, and this Parliament, dressed up in a French domino, 



830 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

is not the ancient Parliament of England, whose history is the pride 
of Englishmen, This Parliament, dresed up in the procedure of the 
French Chambers, is something vastly different from the Parliament 
which curbed the power of kings, and wrote its declaration of rights 
in the blood of a monarch. But the abasement of its dignity through 
the sacrifice of its ancient procedure is but a slight injury compared 
to the dangers which still threaten it. I have said that, if she con- 
tinues to deny legislative autonomy to Ireland, England will be left 
without a parliamentary government of its own. I mean to say that 
parliamentary government, as it has heretofore existed in England, 
will be impossible under the conditions which she is now producing. 
Parliamentary government necessarily means party government. Its 
existence implies that one party or the other would always control 
a majority in the House of Commons, and could always, therefore, 
be charged with the power and responsibility of government. But 
with eighty-five members of the House indifferent to English ques- 
tions, hostile to both English parties, supporting no policy, except that 
which will promote the national aspirations of Ireland, no Cabinet 
can undertake the government of the country unless its supporters in 
the House of Commons outnumber by nearly a hundred the followers 
of the opposing English party. 

Now, government by a majority of a hundred is not government 
by a simple majority, and is not parliamentary government, as it has 
been heretofore understood. It may be something better than parlia- 
mentary government, but it is not the parliamentary government un- 
der which England has grown and prospered. We have already seen 
a party which was in a minority in Great Britain maintained in power 
for three years by Irish votes. And that condition may arise again. 
Cabinets made and unmade by votes hostile to the existence of the 
Government which they administer are simply absurd. It is a bad 
thing for both England and Ireland to have Irishmen establishing 
governments for England in English Parliaments. It is worse for 
Ireland to have Irish affairs managed by an English Parliament. In 
God's name, let each country abandon the task of managing the af- 
fairs of the other to the injury of both ; let the representatives of each 
go their separate ways, and let two independent parliaments become 
the fountains of their common prosperity. 

The history of this century proves that Emmet's insurrection of 
1803 was the initial step in a movement which has never yet been 
suppressed. The purpose which animated him was the same as that 
which fired the hearts and nerved the arms of Wolfe Tone, of Lord 
Edward Fitzgerald, of Orr and of the Sheareses. As the sword of re- 
sistance fell from his grasp it was caught up by other hands. It has 
been often sheathed, but has never been cast away. The cause for 
which he died was never more severe than it is now, never more vig- 
orous than it is at the present day. 

I confess to some sense of humiliation and regret that the century 
should almost have elapsed and that Emmet's monument is still with- 
out a foundation. It is related, I think, of King Edward I. that, 
when the fatal sickness overtook him while he was at the head of an 
invading force on the Scottish frontiers, he summoned his son and 
charged him that his body should not be buried but should be carried 
before his army until the last foot of Scottish territory had been con- 
quered. We cannot carry Robert Emmet's body before Irish hosts, 
but we must keep his memory before Irish patriots. (Applause.), 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 831 

Emmet's body is in the ground, but his funeral obsequies have not yet 
been celebrated. When Irishmen are tempted to quarrel, let them re- 
member they are still in the presence of the dead, and that no Irish- 
man is justified in criticising another while a vestige of English 
tyranny oppresses the Irish soil, (Applause.) 

I say this not to blame or critcise anybody, but as an appeal to 
all. Ireland stands at the bar of international opinion, asking judg- 
ment against England, invoking the arm of the civilized world to do 
justice to her and thus to protect itself. The answer will not be long 
delayed. Ireland has a peculiar claim on the court in which she 
pleads. The civilization to which she appeals she has largely helped 
to create. Whoever studies the intellectual development of Europe 
will place the dawn of learning and the restoration of letters at the 
period when Charlemagne, having conquered the Saxons after more 
than thirty years of resistance, laid aside the sabre and attempted to 
train his hand to the mastery of the pen. The school which he founded 
was the germ of that University of Paris which has done so much for 
the spread of intellectual light, and for the advancement of civiliza- 
tion. That school was largely taught by Irish professors. It was to 
Ireland that he sent his son for instruction. Buckle, Guizot, every 
writer who traces the progress of civilization, admits that during the 
eighth, ninth and tenth centuries the Irish missionaries bore the lamp 
of instruction into every countijy of Europe. Irish missionaries 
preached and taught in England, in Scotland, in France; they com- 
pleted the civilization of Germany. 

Historians have chronicled their achievements, but the world 
has given them little credit for their service to humanity. These 
humble servants of the cross, frequently disguised under names as- 
sumed in religion, have left few traces of their identity, while they 
have erected everywhere imposing intellectual monuments of their 
industry. To-day Ireland faces the only dangers which at the close 
of this century threatens Christian States. Anarchism in crowded 
cities makes rulers tremble and citizens uneasy. Thoughtful men are 
alarmed at the spread of notions inconsistent with order and with 
social law, which proceed from a growing disbelief xp. the fountain 
of all law, while the very essence of Christian civilization, the mar- 
riage tie, is imperiled by laws which tolerate and even encourage the 
granting of divorce. Europe, America, Christendom, confronted by 
such perils as these, will welcome to the family of nations as a ram- 
part against the rising tide of infidelity and immorality that country 
where the chastity of the women is never suspected (applause), where 
the doors of the divorce court are always closed (applause), where 
love of country is intertwined with faith in God (applause). 

As we behold Irish opposition to English oppression as vigorous 
at the close of this nineteenth century as it was at the close of the 
twelfth, we know that Irish patriotism is a force which cannot be de- 
stroyed. It is a flame which is unquenched and unquenchable, which 
is not smothered, but fed, by the blood of patriots. The emancipation 
of Ireland is assured, because the cause of Ireland is the cause of 
justice ; it is the cause of morality ; it is the cause of progress ; it is the 
cause of civilization. (Applause.) 

Our faith in her triumph is not built on the promises of princes 
which may be broken; not on treaties which may be violated, but on 
laws which are eternal, on forces which are indestructible ; it is built 
upon the fortitude of Ireland 's sons, the virtue of Ireland 's daughters, 



832 Ireland's Crown of Thorns and Roses 

the merits of Ireland's cause, the memory of Ireland's martyrs, the 
justice of Ireland's God. (Great applause and cheers for Bourke 
Cochran.) 



SPEECH OF THE HON. JOHN F. FINERTY, PRESIDENT OF 
THE UNITED IRISH LEAGUE OF AMERICA. 

DELIVERED AT THE *'NEW MOVEMENT CONVENTION," Y. M. 0. A. BUILDING, 
CHICAGO, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1895. 

Gentlemen oi the convention : I would be utterly insensible to 
the generosity ol' the Irish- American heart if I did not deeply and 
sincerely feel tho weight of the honor you have placed upon me. To 
preside over a convention of this character is one of the proudest 
incidents in tho life of any man; to preside over a convection that 
has met to renow the work of Theobald Wolfe Tone began in France 
100 years ago, is a matter of pride that I shall carry with me to the 
grave. I obse^we already in some of our American papers editorials 
questioning the prudence of this convention and dictating to us a 
policy, hoping we will do nothing to offend English sentiment. What 
do we care for English sentiment? We don't want to offend Ameri- 
can sentiment ; we don 't want to offend French sentiment ; we don 't 
want to offend Russian sentiment ; but we do want to offend seriously 
our hereditary and merciless foes. 

We sound to-day the death-knell of whiggery in Irish politics ; we 
stand hers on our rights as a race to advocate absolute independence 
of the land that gave us or our fathers birth ; a land, not a colony of 
England in the words of a great orator, with a civilization older than 
the gospel, a land that has made a heroic struggle for her rights, and 
which has never yet yielded to the rod of the conqueror. We admit 
the physical conquest of Ireland, but we deny a moral conquest. The 
self same spirit that met the spearmen of Strongbow animates the 
hearts of the young Irishmen of to-day. The conditions are changed 
indeed. Our American friends may preach to us the doctrine of 
peace and prudence. We Vv^ill follow them so long as may be neces- 
sary, but I will remind our editorial American friends that when the 
Americans had a grievance against England they did not stand on 
the order in which they threw the British tea chests into Boston har- 
bor. They made the law officers of the British crown swallow their 
own papers on Boston common, and the dose was so indigestible that 
it killed their rule in this country. 

The American people have a right, indeed, to tell us that we must 
deport ourselves as American citizens, because we are American citi- 
zens, and we will remind them that they can point to no blot in our 
history in connection with this country. The flag of our fathers has 
never been raised against the government, and if they look for a flag 
that is an enemy to America they will find that it is of a very different 
color from the glorious green of Ireland. 

Why should the American people be so fearful of the sensibilities 
of "illustrious" England? What has she ever done for America? 
Did she not seek to strangle her in the cradle ? Did she not smite her 
in the face when she was only, you might say, a maiden entering upon 
womanhood? Did she not conspire to assassinate her when in the 
full strength of her pride she declined to acquiesce in the disruption 




JOHN F. FINERTY, 

President United Irisli League of America. 



Great Speeches on Great Occasions 833 

of the American imion? Have not the English shown their enmity 
and illwill in every connection and on every occasion in defiance of 
our Monroe Doctrine? Not longer than six months ago they went 
down to our neighboring republic and they dared to land their mer- 
cenaries in defiance of right and decency. Editors say they are afraid 
we will complicate them with England. Suppose we do. I know 
there are plenty of English syndicates tied up in this country. I 
know there is plenty of English capital tied up also, very much more 
than there is of American capital in England. Let England dare to 
fire the first shot. I am aware that the English press will sneer at 
this ; I know they will say we are here for other objects than the lib- 
eration of Ireland. 

It is physically imjDOSsible and morally impossible for the Eng- 
lish press to tell the truth, but we are met here to-day to tell America, 
France and Russia, and every possible friend of ours, and every pos- 
sible enemy of the British government, that we are in this fight to 
stay. We are not enlisted for one year or for three years but for the 
war. The British minister may send his battalions of spies; we care 
nothing about them. We don't care if all Scotland yard is within 
hearing to-night, because we are stating openly and above board the 
undying principle that Ireland has as much right to separate and dis- 
tinct freedom as England herself. Ireland has never acquiesced in 
the rule of England. The so-called union of 1801 is a fraud, a nul- 
lity and a usurpation, and the Irish nation is not bound by it. 

We impeach the authority of England by her abrogation of the 
treaty of Limerick ; we impeach the authority of England by her viola- 
tion of the renunciation act of 1783; we impeach the authority of 
England by the fraudulent and corrupt means with which she bought 
a minority parliament, representing a minority of the Irish people, 
and which murdered Irish liberty through the unconstitutional act of 
voting its own extinguishment. We say to-night that by all moral 
laws, by the laws of nations, by the law of treaties, by the law of 
contracts, Ireland is not bound to be an integral part of the British 
empire. 

England stole from us our parliament, such as it was. We have 
asked it back; we have gone out of our way to humiliate ourselves 
before this proud and conscienceless power. Are we to w^ait forever 
on the return of the English heart to charity? No. What was her 
answer to Benjamin Franklin when he went on that mission? Scorn 
and contumely. When did the thought strike home that she had to 
respect American opinion? When the shot was fired at Concord by 
the American farmers. 

We are here, my friends, not to be bespattered by the slanders of 
England ; we are not here to be told we contemplate murder ; we are 
not here to be told we contemplate swindling. Those properties be- 
long to England. We are here to invite the sympathy of the whole 
world to our cause. We are here to say to our beloved Uncle Sam 
that if he drawls the sword in defense of the Monroe doctrine, or any 
other American principle, we here, representing the Irish of America, 
from the Pacific to the Atlantic, are behind the American government. 

We say to the Russian, as he marches on India, "our sympathies 
are with you. ' ' We say to the German wrangling with England about 
possessing Africa, "Take all the continent if you can." We say to 
the Frenchman if he menaces England's interests in her colonies. 
"God speed the work; take them all." We are the friends of every 
enemy of England, and we are the enemies of every friend of Eng- 



834 Ireland's Crowx of Thorns and Roses 

Icind, aud we want to drive it home and nail it to the mast to the 
death. 

Now, gentlemen, we mean to conduct this organization which is 
to be formed ©n broad and manly and martial principles. We tell 
England and we tell the rest of the world that we are determined to 
encourage the enlistment of our young Irishmen, either independently 
or in regular battalions. We M"Ant to be ready when the time comes. 
When Theobald W^olfe Tone went to France with hardly a dollar in 
his pocket he took with him a letter of introduction from the Ameri- 
can secretary of state to James Monroe at Paris, who presented hint 
to the French government. He laid before the French government the 
plan of organization of the United Irishmen. He stirred the heart 
of France to send two expeditions — one from the Dutch republic and 
one from France herself — to the relief of Ireland. The elements shat- 
tered them. Other expditions followed. AVolfe Tone himself fought 
on board a French line of battleship until she Avas disabled and had 
to surrender. He Wtis taken to Dublin. You know the sad story of 
his trial and death, but he said to the court-martial which sentenced 
him to be hanged: "I believed from my youth that the sole griev- 
ance of Ireland is English connection." This fiery gospel comes from 
the churchyard of Bodenstown, from the grave of St. Michan's, where 
the youthful lips of Emmet are silent forever. It is re-echoed from 
the spires of Newry. where John Mitchell sleeps in honor, from the 
waves of the IMissouri that roll over the relics of iNIeagher, from the 
unconsecrated graves of Salford prison, where repose the remains of 
the martvrs of jManchester who laid down their lives for their conn- 

The necessities of empire are great indeed, but the requirements of 
liberty are greater still. The loss of Ireland might cripple England, 
but it would restore Ireland to life, to honor and to prosperity. The 
pride of empire is great indeed, but the pride of patriotism is greater 
still, and there is not a man of us here to-day, I venture to say it, 
that would not rather have Ireland, poor and trampled as she is, in 
defense of the maintenance of a principle, than have her kept a harlot 
ojf the spoils of the British empire. We want no partnership in crime. 
We don't want the rupees of India. We don't want the wealth of 
Africa. We have no pride or concern in that empire. Our Avish is 
to mete out to it the same measure that it has meted out to us. We 
are the open, avowed and proclaimed enemies of that empire, and AAdll 
devote our efforts, our means, and, if necessary, our lives to accom- 
plish our purpose — ^the emancipation of Ireland. 

This, then, gentlemen of the convention, is the spirit in which we 
enter upon this work. I will again renew to you my thanks and I will 
say to you that old Ireland may well borrow hope from this mag- 
nificent demonstration, and it may be that the dream of our patriots 
may be realized in our own day — that we shall see the flag that has no 
home or abiding place, except in other lands than Ireland, floatinsr 
above a free and independent Irish nation. 

" 'Full many a nobler heart than ours 

Has perished that end to gain: 
And many a mind of God-like powers 

Was wasted not all in vain. 
They have left us a treasure of pity and wratli. 

As a spur to our cold-blood set. 
And we'll tread in their path with a spirit that hath 

Assurance of triumph yet.' " 



^AUG 25 1904 



